Binance CEO Pushes Back Against False Narratives About FTX, SBF
If not for Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao and his company’s due diligence examination of crypto exchange FTX, it’s likely Sam Bankman-Fried would have kept the plates spinning longer and ripped off even more investors and users before all the plates crashed down. Now with SBF attempting a personal rehabilitation arc platformed, amazingly, by the New York Times and Dealbook among others, CZ is having none of it.
CZ took to Twitter on Tuesday to address several false narratives that SBF and his enablers are floating, calling the FTX founder a “master manipulator when it comes to media and key opinion leaders.”
“SBF perpetuated a narrative painting me and other people as the ‘bad guys.’ 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.”
CZ also pushed back against the idea that SBF just wanted to be the “savior of crypto.”
“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.”
CZ also responded to the accusation the FTX fiasco began only after he stated publicly on Nov. 6 he would be selling his remaining FTT (FTX) tokens. Instead, he tweeted, FTX’s collapse could be more accurately sourced as beginning with this tweet from Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, where she said:
“@cz_binance if you're looking to minimize the market impact on your FTT sales, Alameda will happily buy it all from you today at $22!”
He addressed other false narratives the SBF apologists have floated, such as:
2 “FTX was killed by xyz (ie, a 3rd party)” No, FTX killed themselves (and their users) because they stole billions of dollars of user funds. Period.”
And:
3 “SBF had good intentions, but just made some mistakes.” Lying is never with good intentions.
And while Binance’s examination of FTX may have tipped the first domino, this wasn’t some showdown between competitors, it was just a Ponzi scheme collapsing, CZ tweeted.
“SBF vs CZ: The Epic Showdown” We don't focus on competitors because it's a waste of time and resources when the industry has only touched 6% of the population. We want multiple exchanges, multiple blockchains, multiple wallets, etc, to co-exist in the ecosystem.
As we’ve said from the beginning, crypto was just the means SBF and company used in a fraud scheme. Crypto didn’t fail FTX and SBF. In fact it was the industry itself that revealed them.