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Binance Counters ‘Wrong Narratives’ About FTX—CZ Calls SBF ‘One of the Greatest Fraudsters in History’

The CEO of crypto exchange Binance, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), has countered several “wrong narratives” about the collapsed crypto exchange FTX and its co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). The Binance boss calls SBF “a master manipulator” and “one of the greatest fraudsters in history.”

Binance’s CEO on ‘Wrong Narratives’ About FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried

The CEO of crypto exchange Binance, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), took to Twitter Tuesday to address what he called “wrong narratives” that he has seen recently about the collapsed crypto exchange FTX and its co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF).

The first narrative he addressed was “CZ wants to be the savior of crypto,” the Binance boss described. He explained:

Crypto doesn’t need saving. Crypto is fine. It’s the beauty of decentralization. We are just part of it. We want to help other good projects that may be in a cash crunch because of recent events. It’s in our collective best interest.

The second narrative is “FTX was killed by xyz (ie, a 3rd party),” CZ continued, emphasizing: “No, FTX killed themselves (and their users) because they stole billions of dollars of user funds. Period.”

The next narrative Zhao countered was “CZ’s tweet destroyed FTX,” the Binance CEO said, arguing: “No healthy business can be destroyed by a tweet.” On Nov. 6, days before FTX filed for bankruptcy, CZ tweeted that Binance is dumping all FTX tokens on its books.

While Zhao has denied destroying FTX with his tweet, he pointed out that an article published by Bloomberg suggested that a tweet by Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison led to the collapse of FTX and caused investors to dump the FTT token. The Binance chief wrote:

Caroline’s tweet 16 minutes after mine on Nov 6 … Data shows it was the real cause for people to dump FTT … She gave her floor price away…

Zhao also addressed some narratives about Bankman-Fried. One is “SBF had good intentions, but just made some mistakes,” Zhao noted, stressing: “Lying is never with good intentions.”

Another narrative is “SBF perpetuated a narrative painting me and other people as the ‘bad guys,'” CZ added, elaborating:

It was critical in maintaining the fantasy that he was a ‘hero.’ SBF is one of the greatest fraudsters in history, he is also a master manipulator when it comes to media and key opinion leaders.

Some people have compared the FTX meltdown and Bankman-Fried to Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said last week that the FTX collapse was “a Lehman moment within crypto.”

FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11 and Bankman-Fried stepped down as the CEO. An estimated one million customers and investors lost billions of dollars from the exchange collapse. The company is now being investigated 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 controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here.”

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