Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao ( CZ ) has hit back at several “false narratives” about the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX and its co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried ( SBF ). Binance boss calls SBF a “master manipulator” and “one of the biggest frauds in history”.
Binance CEO on ‘False Narratives’ about FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried
Changpeng Zhao ( CZ ), CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, took to Twitter on Tuesday to address the “false narratives” he has seen recently about the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX and its co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried ( SBF ).
The first story he addressed was “CZ wants to be the savior of cryptocurrency,” said the Binance boss. He explained:
No need to save crypto. Crypto is great. This is the beauty of decentralization. We are just a part of it. We want to help other good projects that may be in a cash crunch due to recent events. This is in the interests of our team.
The second narrative is “FTX was killed by xyz (ie, a 3rd party)”, CZ went on to emphasize, “No, FTX killed themselves (and their users) because they stole billions of dollars of user funds. Period.”
The next narrative that Zhao countered was that “CZ’s tweet destroyed FTX,” the Binance CEO said, “No healthy business can be destroyed by a tweet.” On November 6th, days before the FTX debacle, CZ tweeted that Binance was dumping all FTX tokens on its books.
Although Zhao denied destroying FTX in his tweet, an article published by Bloomberg said that a tweet by Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda Research, caused FTX to crash and caused investors to dump the FTT token. The head of Binance wrote:
Caroline’s tweet 16 minutes after my tweet on Nov 6th… Data shows that this was the real reason people were giving up on FTT… She gave her price…
Zhao also addressed some narratives about Bankman-Fried. One of them is “The SBF had good intentions, but it made some mistakes,” Zhao said, stressing: “Lies are never with good intentions.”
Another narrative said, “SBF perpetuated a narrative that portrayed me and other people as ‘bad guys,'” CZ added:
It was very important to maintain the fantasy of him being a “hero”. The SBF is one of history’s greatest frauds, he is also a master manipulator when it comes to the media and mainstream opinion leaders.
Some people have compared the FTX meltdown and Bankman-Fried to Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said last week that the FTX collapse was a “Lehman moment in crypto”.
FTX filed for bankruptcy on November 11, and Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO. An estimated one million customers and investors lost billions of dollars in the stock market crash. The company is now under investigation 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 control and complete absence of reliable financial information as occurred here.”
What do you think of Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao’s comments? And do you think Bankman-Fried is one of the biggest frauds in history? Let us know in the comment section below.
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