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Binance Denies Accusation From UK Lawmaker That It Deliberately Sank FTX

The exchange pointed to a CoinDesk article that set off a series of events that led to FTX's bankruptcy filing.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CoinDesk)
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CoinDesk)

Binance, which is the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, denied it planned to deliberately sink rival FTX after being questioned by lawmakers in the U.K.

The exchange sent the Parliament's Treasury Committee a five-page document outlining the sequence of events that led to the FTX collapse on Wednesday after promising to do so at a hearing on Monday.

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In the document, it said the initial catalyst was a CoinDesk article on how most of Alameda Research's assets consisted of FTT, FTX's own token. Alameda is a trading firm affiliated with FTX. FTX has since filed for bankruptcy.

"It is clear from the above that the causes of the collapse of FTX were the financial irregularities and possible fraud initially reported in the CoinDesk article on 2 November," the document stated.

The Treasury Committee held a hearing on Monday to question officials from crypto companies in the aftermath of FTX's collapse, and Daniel Tinder, Binance's vice president of governmental affairs of Europe, offered to send the document after Member of Parliament Harriett Baldwin, who is chairwoman of the committee, asked if Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao "brought about the collapse of FTX?"

The committee also asked Trinder if Binance knew its actions that included unloading much of its FTT holdings on the market and agreeing to acquire FTX before backing out of a deal could lead to the collapse of FTX.

"But it must have been apparent when that decision was taken that was likely to cause the collapse of FTX, one of your major competitors," Baldwin said.

Read more: Crypto Industry Participants Field Questions from UK Lawmakers After FTX Collapse

Camomile Shumba

Camomile Shumba is a CoinDesk regulatory reporter based in the UK. Previously, Shumba interned at Business Insider and Bloomberg. Camomile has featured in Harpers Bazaar, Red, the BBC, Black Ballad, Journalism.co.uk, Cryptopolitan.com and South West Londoner.

Shumba studied politics, philosophy and economics as a combined degree at the University of East Anglia before doing a postgraduate degree in multimedia journalism. While she did her undergraduate degree she had an award-winning radio show on making a difference. She does not currently hold value in any digital currencies or projects.

Camomile Shumba