The CEO of crypto exchange Binance, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), has countered several “wrong narratives” about the collapsed crypto exchange FTX and its co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). The Binance boss calls SBF “a master manipulator” and “one of the greatest fraudsters in history.”
Binance CEO on ‘false narrative’ about FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried
The CEO of crypto exchange Binance, Changpeng Zhao (CZ) on Tuesday called out on Twitter the “false narrative” he has seen regarding recently collapsed crypto exchange FTX and its co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF).
The first narrative he addressed was “CZ wants to be the savior of crypto,” the Binance boss described. He explained:
Crypto does not require savings. crypto is ok. This is the beauty of decentralisation. We are only a part of it. We want to help other good projects which may be in cash crunch due to recent events. It is in our collective best interest.
The second narrative is “FTX was killed by xyz (ie, a 3rd party),” CZ continued, emphasizing: “No, FTX killed themselves (and their users) because they stole billions of dollars of user funds. Period.”
Zhao countered the next narrative, “CZ’s tweet destroyed FTX,” with the Binance CEO arguing: “No healthy business can be destroyed by a tweet.” On November 6th, days before FTX filed for bankruptcy, CZ tweeted that Binance was dumping all FTX tokens on its books.
While Zhao has denied destroying FTX with his tweet, he pointed out that an article published by Bloomberg suggested that a tweet by Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison led to the collapse of FTX and caused investors to dump the FTT token. The Binance chief wrote:
Carolyn’s tweet 16 minutes after my tweet on Nov 6th… Data shows this was the real reason people left FTT… She gave her bottom line…
Zhao also addressed some narratives about Bankman-Fried. One is “SBF had good intentions, but just made some mistakes,” Zhao noted, stressing: “Lying is never with good intentions.”
Another narrative is “SBF perpetuates a narrative portraying me and others as ‘the bad guys’,” CZ elaborated, adding:
It was critical in maintaining the fantasy that he was a ‘hero.’ SBF is one of the greatest fraudsters in history, he is also a master manipulator when it comes to media and key opinion leaders.
Some have compared the FTX meltdown and Bankman-Fried to Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said last week that the collapse of FTX was “a Lehman moment within crypto”.
FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11 and Bankman-Fried stepped down as the CEO. An estimated one million customers and investors lost billions of dollars from the exchange collapse. The company is now being investigated for mishandling customer funds. FTX’s new CEO, John Ray, told the bankruptcy court: “Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here.”
