The CEO of Binance addresses “wrong narratives” regarding FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried
Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, took to Twitter to address what he called “wrong narratives” he had recently come across regarding the defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX and its co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF).
The chief executive of Binance stated that the first narrative he addressed was “CZ wants to be the savior of crypto.” He clarified:
Cryptocurrency does not require saving. Cryptocurrency is fine. It is decentralization’s beauty. They want to support other deserving initiatives that might be facing financial difficulties as a result of recent events. It’s in their best interests as a whole.
CZ continued, emphasising: No, FTX killed themselves (and their users) because they stole billions of dollars in user funds. The second narrative is FTX was killed by xyz (i.e., a third party).
The CEO of Binance refuted the claim that “CZ’s tweet destroyed FTX” by saying that no healthy business can be destroyed by a tweet. Days before FTX declared bankruptcy on November 6, CZ tweeted that Binance was selling off all FTX tokens that were listed on its books.
While Zhao has denied that his tweet caused the demise of FTX, he did note that a recent report claimed that Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison’s tweet was to blame for the demise of FTX and the subsequent sell-off of the FTT token by investors. The CEO of Binance wrote:
On November 6, Caroline tweeted 16 minutes after he did. According to data, that is what really caused people to stop using FTT.
Additionally, Zhao addressed some myths surrounding Bankman-Fried. Zhao pointed out that the first is that SBF had good intentions, but just made some mistakes, emphasizing that lying is never with good intentions.
SBF perpetuated a narrative painting him and other people as the bad guys, is another claim. CZ elaborated, saying:
It was essential to upholding the lie that he was a “hero.” SBF is one of the most infamous scammers and a master manipulator of the media and influential figures.
The FTX meltdown and Bankman-Fried have been compared by some to Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. The FTX collapse, according to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, was a Lehman moment within crypto, she said last week.
On November 11, FTX declared bankruptcy, and Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO. Millions of investors and customers lost billions of dollars as a result of the exchange collapse. The business is currently under investigation for improper handling of customer money. Never in his career has he seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here, FTX’s new CEO John Ray told the bankruptcy court.
