Binance chief executive officer Changpeng Zhao (CZ) said in a Twitter thread on Tuesday that he had no intention of picking a fight with FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) — even though CZ’s tweet announcing the liquidation of the FTT token from the world’s largest crypto exchange prompted some users to withdraw from FTX following Zhao’s surprise sale announcement.

See related article: Binance to sell FTX token holdings amid questions over Alameda finances

Fast facts

  • “I was out with friends yesterday when the topic of whale alerts came up. Following our principles, I decided to be transparent. So I wrote a thread in 5 mins, and posted it,” said Zhao in the Tuesday thread. “Little did I know it was going to be “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
  • Zhao on Monday announced that Binance would slash all FTT tokens on its books due to “recent revelations,” and then retweeted a post showing nearly 23 million FTT tokens were moved to the Binance exchange.
  • A report from crypto media outlet CoinDesk last week revealed a balance sheet of FTX’s sister company Almeda Research, suggesting that SBF’s empire might have liquidity and insolvency issues.
  • “Funny memes, media & some people tried to color this as a ‘fight.’ Sorry to disappoint, but I spend my energy building, not fighting,” said Zhao in the tweet thread. 
  • FTX experienced a run on withdrawals on Monday. More than US$451 million worth of crypto deposits have come out from the crypto exchange in the last seven days, as of 12:00 a.m. Hong Kong time, according to crypto data analytics firm Nansen. An FTX Monday tweet shows users were complaining of slow withdrawals.
  • “We have been processing all withdrawals, and will continue to be,” SBF assured in a Monday tweet.
  • “The tough part is that it’s always sensible to withdraw, even if you think the rumors are like 1% likely to be true,” said Larry Cermak, vice president of research at The Block. Cermak believes the chance of FTX insolvency is “near 0%.”
  • See related article: Binance and FTX lead bidding for bankrupt Voyager
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