This week the crypto world has been following one of the biggest dramas between two major exchanges: Binance, led by Chinese entrepreneur and crypto mogul CZ, and Bahamas based FTX platform, created by crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried.
The whirlwind started with the FTX’s exchange FTT token claimed liquidity crunch and major sell off of FTT holdings kept in a “bag” by Binance. After natural FTT price downfall and obvious negotiations between the two exchanges, CZ announced that he would consider bailing out his rival and acquiring FTX, raising questions about the regulatory risks and centralised platforms’ governance in the crypto community.
After that, the information occurred that the US Federal Trade Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission have opened investigations into FTX. Binance immediately walked away from the deal:
In the beginning, our hope was to be able to support FTX’s customers to provide liquidity, but the issues are beyond our control or ability to help.
— Binance (@binance) November 9, 2022
As a result of corporate due diligence, as well as the latest news reports regarding mishandled customer funds and alleged US agency investigations, we have decided that we will not pursue the potential acquisition of https://t.co/FQ3MIG381f.
— Binance (@binance) November 9, 2022
“After conducting its due diligence, Binance found out that the gap between FTX’s assets and liabilities is more than $6 billion and there is a huge liquidity crisis at FTX and its sister company Alameda Research” – Unlock reports. “FTX’s largest asset was revealed to be $3.66 billion in locked FTT, the native token of the crypto exchange. Its third biggest asset was $2.16 billion in FTT collateral. That means, over $5 billion of the company’s assets are FTT, which raises questions about its financial health.”
Regulation concerns have risen among industry players and regulators: as Decrypt reports, after Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has been highly critical of the crypto sector, tweeted on Wednesday that the FTX crisis showed how much of the industry “appears to be smoke and mirrors”, the Coinbase platform chief Brian Armstrong has noted that scrutinizing platforms and tightening regulatory efforts towards U.S. crypto “makes no sense” given that many so many crypto companies are based offshore.
Justin Sun, the founder of the Tron cryptocurrency network, tweeted late Wednesday that he and his team were “putting together a solution” together with the FTX team to figure out the situation for FTT token holders, without going much further with details.
Further to my announcement to stand behind all Tron token (#TRX, #BTT, #JST, #SUN, #HT) holders on #FTX, we are putting together a solution together with #FTX to initiate a pathway forward. @FTX_Official
— H.E. Justin Sun🌞🇬🇩🇩🇲🔥 (@justinsuntron) November 10, 2022