Did CZ really intend to buy FTX?
Did CZ really intend to buy FTX?
from the moment when Changpeng announced "CZ" Zhao to want to acquire Sam Bankman-Frieds FTX, skeptics found that there was a question that did not seem to be obvious.
Why the effort?
After all, CZ had practically driven his competitor into bankruptcy, ruined his reputation and practically shut down his business.
What would Binance have to acquire a balance that is said to contain a hole near $ 6 billion?
Customers, could be the obvious answer. FTX was the third largest global stock exchange by volume before its implosion.
But FTX was already in free fall after the very public campaign of CZ against SBF. Customers' trust quickly disappeared when the legal dispute of the CEO of Binance intensified, and it is likely that many of them would have found a new home anyway.
How about a new mainstay in the USA? FTX does not allow US customers, so that doesn't make sense. And although Binance returned to the table at some point - if only briefly - to ask SBF to sweeten the deal and throw in FTX.US, this was never a realistic option in view of the numerous legal entanglements of Binance.
Maybe he tried to avoid infection in the markets that his own company could have undermined? When the one who spread this narrative, we would have to assume that Zhao was surprised by the market reaction. And given his master class in the art of war, it feels like a route.
What did CZ really want to achieve?
In fact, it is difficult to find a reason why CZ should be interested in FTX. His technology was not revolutionary, and his overlap with his existing business simply makes no sense. The market dominance he would achieve could even lead to the regulatory authorities rather inclined to pursue it.
so we have a hypothesis.
Despite his rejection that Binance had some “master plan” for this public feud, we can reasonably imagine that the opposite is the case. And that perhaps cz intends to decimate his rival, to defeat him so that there could never be a comeback for the former crypto wonder child.
And maybe we can examine the deeds and not just the words of a man, instead of just speculating href = "https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/153851546754?s=20&t=mg8idnz0hmenrejmgqcjta"> tweeted A quote from Sun Tzu in June 2022: "There are also opportunities in the middle of the chaos."
and boy, there was a lot of chaos this week.
We don't know - and only a few seem to have asked - where Coindesk received the partial balance of Alameda with which this whole thing began. (The same reporter brought the story a few days later that Binance was considering getting out of business.)
But given what happened after her story has been published, cui bono ?
use the media to destroy your opponent
We have not previously reported that Binance has contacted two reporters from Blockworks about official and unofficial channels to draw attention to negative articles and research by third parties about Sam Bankman-Fried and to discuss that our media should "examine him". .
Two of these contacts took place on October 26, a few days before the Alameda record was published by Coindesk. The other was on November 4th, a few days later.
And there is also the armament of Twitter by CZ. For someone who has repeatedly claimed not to support Fear, UncertaAnty, Doubt (fud), it is difficult to imagine that the public announcement that they liquidate hundreds of millions of dollars of their competitor's exchange, is something other than a declaration of war ... and a forerunner of a crypto bank.
In later tweets, he checked the name of Luna, the failed algorithmic stable coin project-only in the event that we had not understood it the first time-and dutifully posted that "we would not support people who do lobby work against other industry players". A clear reference to Bankman-Frieds supposedly fewer friendly comments on Binance towards US lawyers.
(it is also worth mentioning to consider the time of this whole affair. SBF had just had a grueling public struggle about his thoughts on defi regulation, which had significantly weakened his reputation in public for the first time.)
Even if Binance did not have Alameda's balance sheet and was not involved in passing it on to the press, Zhao's actions led to the fact that the value of FTT fell steeply, which - given the fact that the token seemed to support loans at FTX - created exactly the conditions that lenders can withdraw loans that are backed up by FTT. (Incidentally, there is no excuse for the actions of FTX, especially if customer funds were involved. It is horrific, stupid and possibly illegal. But that's a different story.)
Fast lead to the announcement that Binance had a non -binding declaration of intent to buy FTX. And later another tweet on the same day:
“Two large lessons:
1: Never use a token you created as security.
2: Do not borrow anything if you operate a crypto business. Do not use capital "efficiently". Have a big reserve. ”
no intention to buy ftx at all?
According to some sources, Binance was ready to withdraw from the purchase of FTX after only half a day. And when Binance finally announced that they would withdraw from the deal, the FTT price crashed by another 50 % and collapsed by 90 % in the course of a week.
did CZ really intend to buy FTX? A company that he systematically, publicly and ruthlessly destroyed?
or is it outside the imagination to say that this was just a trick to achieve the complete and permanent destruction of Sam Bankman-Fried's call? Even SBF seems to recognize the possibility that this was all a game, in an unconfirmed series of leaked Licht Announcements.
This is just a theory. Byron Gilliam, master of the crypto stories and newsletter author from Blockwork (register, it's great), observed another possibility: CZ was just as amazed as the rest of us.
"But maybe he was only angry with Sbf?
He might have had no idea what chain of events he had triggered by publicly defaming his rivals and threatening to sell his FTT on the market. ”
observer have indicated that the war crypto has thrown back three, four or even five years.
Even for CZ and its billions, which examine the debris that he and Sam have arranged, it has to feel like a pyrrhous victory.
The post really intended to buy FTX? is not a financial advice.
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