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Now that FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) is a favorite punching bag for cryptocurrency enthusiasts, hardly a day goes by when the former CEO of the now-bankrupt exchange isn’t verbally bullied, and rightly so. Now, the man some say precipitated the downfall of FTX, namely, Binance’s CZ Zhao, has come out with a fresh take on SBF’s treachery.
The fundamental problem with FTX was an undisclosed symbiotic relationship with the trading arm of Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency empire, Alameda Research. FTX appears to have held its clients’ funds in a bank account intertwined with Alameda Research, giving the cryptocurrency trading firm the opportunity to cut about $10 billion directly from FTX clients’ deposits to place leveraged bets using illiquid collateral, consisting mostly of coins such as FTT and On top of that, FTX also allowed Alameda to take over the positions of its clients who were exposed to a margin call. In a bull market, this allowed Alameda to hold positions underwater and later sell them for a profit. However, in the current bear market, this strategy only produced compounding losses.
However, that gig came to an end once Alameda’s exposure to the FTT token became public knowledge, prompting Binance to begin dumping its FTT stock, crashing the token’s price in the process. This led to a bank scramble as clients tried to exit the exchange promoting a Ponzi scheme, eventually leading to FTX declaring bankruptcy on the back of an $8 billion hole in its balance sheet.
4. “CZ Tweet Destroyed FTX”
No healthy business can be destroyed by a tweet.
However, there was a tweet that might have been, Caroline’s tweet 16 minutes after her November 6 tweet. Data shows it was the real reason people dumped FTT: https://t.co/yWFqKvbqMU
– Czechoslovakia 🔶 Binance (cz_binance) December 6, 2022
Now, CZ Zhao has come out with proverbial weapons, countering Sam Bankman-Fried’s allegations that Binance precipitated FTX’s collapse. CZ maintains that a viable business can never be destroyed by a tweet. However, CZ then points out a tweet from Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison that it did just that, implying that FTX was never a viable company, to begin with.
For those who may be unaware, CZ here is referring to a tweet from Ellison that offered to buy the entire Binance stock of FTT Coins for $22, essentially giving up Alameda”lowest price“And the call of speculators to try to collapse the token’s price below this threshold — which is exactly what set off a chain reaction.
4.2 The SBF continued to paint a narrative picture of me and others as the “bad guys”. It was crucial to maintain the fantasy that he was a “hero”. SBF is one of the greatest fraudsters in history, and also a master manipulator when it comes to the media and major opinion leaders.
– Czechoslovakia 🔶 Binance (cz_binance) December 6, 2022
However, CZ reserved its sharpest attack yet on Sam Bankman-Fried, calling him “one of the greatest frauds in history” and “a master manipulator when it comes to the media and major opinion leaders”.
On a similar note, MicroStrategy CEO and co-founder Michael Saylor also dismissed Sam Bankman-Fried in a recent interview, specifically expressing his displeasure with the fact that the entire SBF Ponzi scheme is based on an internal token, namely: the FTT coin.
“There is something morally wrong about being able to release your unregistered security. Sam and most people in the cryptocurrency world have always been guilty of the sin of shitcoinery.”
.@tweetAnd the
Based on your role as CEO and your media interviews over the past few weeks, it is clear to us that the information you have so far is sufficient to testify. (1/3) https://t.co/YUVVjOkC40
– Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) December 5, 2022
Meanwhile, we noted yesterday that Sam Bankman-Fried turned down an invitation from Maxine Waters, who sits on the US House Committee on Financial Services, to discuss the FTX saga, drawing a huge rebuke in the process. Well, apparently the US Congress is in no mood to give up on the SBF so easily. In a detailed Twitter thread, he stated that it was “essential” for the SBF to attend the congressional hearing on the 13th.The tenth In December, considering that the collapse of FTX affected “over a million people”.