Crypto Sector Shaken by FTX Collapse, Binance Takeover

The crypto sector has been rocked by the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX exchange following a rush of withdrawals that ended up with a bailout deal from bigger rival Binance.

Bitcoin, the biggest cryptocurrency by market value, was down 2% at $18,250, after a 10% plunge on Tuesday that marked its worst day since mid-August. Ether, the next largest, has lost nearly 18% since early Tuesday.

The market focus was, however, on FTT, the token tied to FTX, whose financials have been the source of market angst since last week. FTT plummeted 72% on Tuesday and was down a further 5% at a two-year low of $4.61 on Wednesday.

Pressure on FTX came in part from Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, who said on Sunday that Binance would liquidate its holdings of the rival’s token due to unspecified “recent revelations.”

Market participants were then stunned when Binance signed a non-binding agreement on Tuesday to buy FTX’s non-US unit to help cover what it called a liquidity crunch.

This afternoon, FTX asked for our help. There is a significant liquidity crunch. To protect users, we signed a non-binding LOI, intending to fully acquire https://t.co/BGtFlCmLXB and help cover the liquidity crunch. We will be conducting a full DD in the coming days.

— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) November 8, 2022

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Cryptos Crumble as FTX Exchange Rumours Panic Traders

‘More Will Unfold’

The deal between high-profile rivals Zhao and FTX’s CEO Bankman-Fried, followed week-long speculation about FTX’s financial health that snowballed into $6 billion of withdrawals in the 72 hours before Tuesday’s deal.

Two big lessons:

1: Never use a token you created as collateral.

2: Don’t borrow if you run a crypto business. Don’t use capital “efficiently”. Have a large reserve.

Binance has never used BNB for collateral, and we have never taken on debt.

Stay #SAFU.🙏

— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) November 8, 2022

“The contagion will play out in the next few days and weeks,” said Zann Kwan, board advisor at Raffles Family Office and member of Singapore association ACCESS, which includes participants involved in cryptocurrency and blockchain, together called decentralised finance (defi).

“Alameda is a big market maker in the defi market. More things will unfold,” she said, referring to Alameda Research, a trading firm founded by Bankman-Fried that has close ties with FTX.

Bankman-Fried said his teams were working on clearing out the withdrawal backlog, though uncertainty in the market about the bailout’s status and the depth of problems kept traders nervous.

4) A *huge* thank you to CZ, Binance, and all of our supporters. This is a user-centric development that benefits the entire industry. CZ has done, and will continue to do, an incredible job of building out the global crypto ecosystem, and creating a freer economic world.

— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 8, 2022

“This may fuel further contagion throughout the crypto market …,” said Mads Eberhardt, crypto analyst at Saxo.