Changpeng Zhao, the chief executive officer of Binance Global Inc., the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, expressed regret for not sending an earlier tweet that led to the demise of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, based in the Bahamas, during a live interview on Bloomberg TV on Thursday.
“I actually reflect on the FTX situation and I kind of blame myself for tweeting that too late. As an industry, we let FTX get too big before we started questioning some of those things,” Zhao said.
On November 8, Zhao tweeted that Binance would cancel all FTT tokens, the FTX native token, as a result of “recent findings,” which sparked a run on FTT. The information he provided came from a CoinDesk post that claimed Alameda Research, FTX’s cryptocurrency brokerage, may have encountered liquidity problems.
Zhao’s words yesterday imply that he may have had some previous knowledge of the matter because his tweet came after the release of the report.
Zhao’s remarks come after industry leaders made commitments to make their operations more public, including Zhao himself, who tweeted on Thursday.
Crypto industry will be more transparent than traditional finance industries. Merkle trees coming soon.
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) November 24, 2022
The CEO added that he anticipates “a little bit of contagion” from FTX as worries grow that cryptocurrency trading firm Genesis Global Trading may soon follow suit and declare bankruptcy. Many additional persons or institutions with money on the platform are affected if one major player, particularly a trading platform, goes down, he explained.
Zhao added that Binance is saving about $1 billion in the hopes of purchasing distressed assets from FTX, but that it will hold off on making an offer until all required investigations are finished and the assets are made available through the liquidation court.
