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4.65%Sam Bankman-Fried, CZ Battle It Out on Twitter Over Binance's Exit from FTX
The former FTX CEO and current Binance CEO disagree on the details of FTX's buyout of Binance's investment in it last year.
Updated May 9, 2023, 4:04 a.m. Published Dec 9, 2022, 2:11 p.m.
CORRECTION (Dec. 9, 14:48 UTC): A previous version of this story incorrectly tied the dispute to Binance's aborted acquisition of FTX last month, instead of Binance's exit from its investment in FTX in 2021.
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is embroiled in a war of words with Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao on social media, with the pair squabbling over FTX's buyout of Binance's investment in it in 2021.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
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"You won, there's no need to lie" Bankman-Fried remarked on Twitter after CZ labeled him as a "fraudster" in an earlier tweet.
You won, @cz_binance.
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) December 9, 2022
There's no need to lie, now, about the buyout.
We initiated conversations around buying you out, and we decided to do it because it was important for our business.
And while I was frustrated with your 'negotiation' tactics, I chose to still do it.
The dispute stems from Binance exiting its investment in FTX in 2021, with Bankman-Fried claiming that CZ threatened to walk away from the deal if FTX didn't pay an extra $75 million.
For his part, CZ claimed that Bankman-Fried became "unhinged" and that he launched a series of offensive tirades after Binance decided to pull out as an investor.
The former FTX CEO replied: "You threatened to walk at the last minute if we didn't kick in an extra $75m. We did it anyway because this just made us feel more confident... But again, none of this is necessary. You won. Why are you lying about this now?"
FTX eventually filed for bankruptcy last month with billions of dollars of client funds being lost, and Bankman-Fried resigned after what is considered a Lehman Brothers moment for the crypto industry.
Oliver Knight
Oliver Knight is the co-leader of CoinDesk data tokens and data team. Before joining CoinDesk in 2022 Oliver spent three years as the chief reporter at Coin Rivet. He first started investing in bitcoin in 2013 and spent a period of his career working at a market making firm in the UK. He does not currently have any crypto holdings.
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