CZ had no intention of picking a fight with FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), really?

By Selena On Nov 8, 2022

Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, stated in a Twitter thread on Tuesday that he had no intention of fighting with Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of FTX, despite the fact that some users withdrew from FTX after Zhao’s surprise sale announcement after CZ’s tweet announcing the liquidation of the FTT token from the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

CZ vs. SBF tweet exchange is no ‘fight,’ Binance CEO claims

“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.”

Everyone wants more transparency in our industry, right? My tweets were simple. There were questions about a large ($580m) FTT deposit to Binance, and we were transparent about the fact that we are closing our FTT position. 2/4

— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) November 7, 2022

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 balance sheet for FTX’s sister company Almeda Research was disclosed in a report from a crypto media site last week, raising the possibility that SBF’s empire may face liquidity and insolvency problems.

“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%.”

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