Binance Chief Executive Officer Changpeng “CZ” Zhao’s decision to sell a big holding of FTX.com’s native crypto token FTT appears to have been an act of retaliation for remarks FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried made about him, SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci said.
(Bloomberg) — Binance Chief Executive Officer Changpeng “CZ” Zhao’s decision to sell a big holding of FTX.com’s native crypto token FTT appears to have been an act of retaliation for remarks FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried made about him, SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci said.
FTX Group named a slate of new independent directors to oversee the collapsed crypto empire and said its bankruptcy may involve more than a million creditors.
Bitcoin rose Tuesday to close to $17,000, providing some respite from a damaging selloff triggered by the FTX crisis. Investors are awaiting details about a crypto recovery fund promised by Zhao.
Key stories and developments:
- FTX Talking With ‘Dozens’ of Regulatory Agencies, Taps Directors
- Binance’s Billionaire CEO Casts Himself as Crypto’s New Savior
- Sam Bankman-Fried’s Magic Money Box Enriched Vast Crypto Network
- Scaramucci Says His Due Diligence on Bankman-Fried ‘Not Enough’
(Time references are New York unless otherwise stated.)
Scaramucci: Zhao’s Sale of FTT Tokens Likely in Retaliation (9:28 a.m)
Scaramucci, in whose company FTX owns a 30% stake, accompanied Bankman-Fried on a recent fundraising trip to the Middle East, he said at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum on Tuesday. During some of those meetings, Bankman-Fried appears to have made unspecified remarks about Zhao, Scaramucci said.
“I think what happened frankly is he said something about CZ, the founder of Binance, in possibly one or two of those meetings, that got back to CZ and he got super upset about it,” Scaramucci said. He said ‘OK, we are in a divorce, we are not gonna make love,’ that was the Twitter comment. He hit him with $500 million worth of FTT tokens.”
After Zhao’s Nov. 6 tweet announcing the sale of FTT tokens worth roughly $530 million at the time, concerns around FTX’s financial health spiraled into a panic and clients yanked some $5 billion from the platform in a day. FTX quickly unraveled, filing for bankruptcy last week.
“FTX’s problems arose from mismanagement of their user funds and their highly leveraged business,” a Binance spokesperson said in an emailed response to questions about Scaramucci’s remarks. Binance decided to sell its holding of FTT after a Nov. 2 CoinDesk article called into question the health of the balance sheet of Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried’s trading house, the spokesperson said.
“CZ’s tweet came only after the community asked questions about the movement of a large amount of FTT which is transparent on the public blockchain,” the Binance spokesperson said. A representative for FTX didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
Binance will submit evidence to UK lawmakers on its decision making around the sale of FTT, Daniel Trinder, the company’s vice president of government affairs in Europe, said at a hearing with the UK Parliament’s Treasury Committee on Monday.
Scaramucci Says His Due Diligence on Bankman-Fried ‘Not Enough’ (Tuesday, 5:05 p.m. Hong Kong)
Anthony Scaramucci, whose SkyBridge Capital was caught up in the implosion of FTX.com, said he did a thorough background check on its founder Sam Bankman-Fried, but it wasn’t enough to protect himself from “misrepresentations.”
“I was doing a lot of due diligence on him, but clearly not enough,” Scaramucci said at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum on Tuesday. He added that FTX’s stake in SkyBridge can’t be transferred to anybody “without my permission.”
Binance to Submit Evidence on FTX Deal (Tuesday, 4:20 p.m. Hong Kong)
Binance said it will submit evidence to UK lawmakers regarding discussions held about FTX.com when the two were in deal talks, as well as on its decision-making around the sale of FTX.com’s native token FTT.
Daniel Trinder, Binance’s vice president of government affairs in Europe, said the company would provide the information to members of the UK Parliament’s Treasury Committee as part of the crypto exchange’s appearance as a witness in a cryptoasset inquiry.
Trinder was grilled by lawmakers on Monday over the firm’s decision to announce a planned sale of more than $500 million in FTT on Nov. 6 — a move that caused trading volumes for the token to spike to their highest in more than a year. It was also part of the chain of events that led to FTX eventually filing for bankruptcy.
Sam Bankman-Fried Posts Cryptic Tweets (Tuesday, 2:05 p.m. Hong Kong)
Former FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried in a series of cryptic tweets over the last 24 hours spelled out the words “What HAPPENED.” He finished with the message: “NOT LEGAL ADVICE. NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE. THIS IS ALL AS I REMEMBER IT, BUT MY MEMORY MIGHT BE FAULTY IN PARTS.”
The bizarre sequence sparked hot debate — and not a little anger — on Twitter as users tried to second guess what would come next.
FTX Talking With ‘Dozens’ of Regulatory Agencies (Tuesday, 1:10 p.m. Hong Kong)
FTX Group named a slate of new independent directors to oversee the collapsed crypto empire and is speaking with the US Attorney’s Office and “dozens” of US and international regulatory agencies, according to new bankruptcy court papers.
“Questions arose about Mr. Bankman-Fried’s leadership and the handling of FTX’s complex array of assets and businesses under his direction,” lawyers for the crypto company wrote. FTX plunged into bankruptcy court after facing “a severe liquidity crisis that necessitated the filing of these cases on an emergency basis.”
Binance CEO: ‘No One Can Protect a Bad Player’ (Monday, 6:06 p.m. Hong Kong)
Speaking at the B20 Summit in Indonesia, Binance Holdings Ltd Chief Executive Officer Changpeng “CZ” Zhao pledged to launch a fund to help crypto markets recover from FTX’s collapse. He singled out people he described as bad actors in the crypto space who “try to cut corners to grow quickly,” and called on industry leaders to “set strong standards” in volatile digital markets.
Zhao, who briefly entertained plans to buy the struggling exchange before backing out a day later, exhorted his crypto counterparts to behave better. “No one can protect a bad player,” he said.
FTX’s Japan Branch Assesses Client Damage (Monday, 5:33 p.m. Hong Kong)
FTX Japan K.K., the Japanese subsidiary of Sam Bankman-Fried’s failed digital asset exchange, is investigating whether its parent company’s bankruptcy will affect its ability to return crypto holdings to regional clients. Last week, the unit was ordered to suspend some of its operations as regulators assessed the wreckage of the FTX collapse.
A company spokesman said that FTX Japan will make a statement once the situation is clearer. As of Nov. 10, FTX Japan held about 19.6 billion yen ($140 million) in cash and deposits.
Singapore Central Bank Says FTX Wasn’t Licensed in the City-State (Monday, 2:40 p.m. Hong Kong)
Singapore’s central bank said that while bankrupt crypto exchange FTX doesn’t have a license to operate in the city-state, it’s not possible to prevent local users from “directly accessing” overseas service providers.
As a result, FTX was “able to onboard Singapore users,” a spokesperson at the Monetary Authority of Singapore said in an emailed statement to Bloomberg News on Monday. “MAS has consistently reminded the public of the risks of dealing with unlicensed entities,” the spokesperson said in the statement.
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