How Binance’s plan to purchase FTX unfolded in a matter of days By Reuters

By Hannah Lang

(Reuters) – Crypto change Binance signed a nonbinding settlement on Tuesday to accumulate rival crypto change FTX, in a dramatic transfer that capped off a collection of back-and-forth salvos between the CEOs of each corporations.

Listed below are the important thing developments within the longstanding relationship between Binance and FTX:

* December 2019: Binance invested an undisclosed quantity in FTX, which was then a derivatives change, CoinDesk reported. Binance additionally bought lengthy positions in FTT, FTX’s native crypto token.

* July 2021: Binance introduced that it was promoting its stake in FTX, Fortune reported. As a part of that exit, Binance acquired the equal of $2.1 billion in Binance’s stablecoin and FTT, in keeping with Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao.

* Nov. 2: Crypto information web site CoinDesk reported on a leaked stability sheet from Alameda Analysis, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto buying and selling agency, which maintains shut ties with FTX.

* In response to CoinDesk’s report, $3.66 billion of Alameda’s $14.6 billion in belongings are held in “unlocked” FTT. Reuters was unable to independently confirm the accuracy of the report or the origin of the leaked stability sheet. Nonetheless, buyers shortly seen that Alameda’s funds gave the impression to be closely depending on FTT, and FTT’s worth was in flip closely depending on purchases from FTX, the token’s largest purchaser.

* Nov. 6, 9:32 a.m. ET: Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison mentioned in a tweet that the “stability sheet information which has been circulating lately” confirmed solely a subset of Alameda’s company entities. The agency has greater than $10 billion in belongings that aren’t mirrored within the CoinDesk report, she mentioned.

* Nov. 6, 10:47 a.m. ET: Concern escalated on Sunday when Zhao tweeted that Binance would liquidate its holdings of FTT “on account of current revelations which have come to gentle,” though he didn’t specify which revelations he was referring to or how a lot of the token Binance held.

* Nov 7: In a collection of tweets on Monday, Bankman-Fried asserted that “a competitor is attempting to go after us with false rumors.”

“FTX is okay. Belongings are nice,” he mentioned.

He tagged Zhao in a later tweet, saying “I might adore it, @cz_binance, if we might work collectively for the ecosystem.”

* Nov. 8: Within the 72 hours main as much as Tuesday morning, FTX had seen round $6 billion of withdrawals, in keeping with a message to workers despatched by Bankman-Fried that was seen by Reuters. Additionally on Tuesday morning, Bankman-Fried wrote that withdrawals are successfully paused.

Shortly after 11 a.m. ET, Bankman-Fried tweeted that FTX had “come to an settlement on a strategic transaction with Binance for FTX.com,” and that whereas groups have been engaged on clearing the backlog of withdrawal requests, all belongings could be coated 1:1.

Zhao tweeted that there’s “a big liquidity crunch” at FTX and, with a purpose to defend customers, Binance signed a nonbinding letter of intent to accumulate FTX.com, which doesn’t embody FTX’s U.S. entity.