Binance to acquire rival FTX

moneycontrol.com:

Two days after announcing the sale of its entire portfolio of FTT tokens of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) on November 8 said it has signed a non-binding letter of intent, planning to fully acquire FTX.

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.

"Our teams are working on clearing out the withdrawal backlog as is. This will clear out liquidity crunches; all assets will be covered 1:1. This is one of the main reasons we’ve asked Binance to come in. It may take a bit to settle etc. -- we apologize for that," FTX founder and CEO Samuel Bankman-Fried (SBF) said in a series of tweets.

"But the important thing is that customers are protected," he added.

Things have come full circle, and https://t.co/DWPOotRHcX’s first, and last, investors are the same: we have come to an agreement on a strategic transaction with Binance for https://t.co/DWPOotRHcX (pending DD etc.).

FTX's token FTT started to plummet from November 6, following a public spat between CZ and SBF.

CZ tweeted on November 6, saying "As a part of Binance’s exit from FTX equity last year, Binance received roughly $2.1 billion USD equivalent in cash (BUSD and FTT). Due to recent revelations that have come to light, we have decided to liquidate any remaining FTT on our books."

This happened after a Coindesk report that was published a few days ago. According to the report, FTX's trading arm, Alameda, had $14.6 billion in assets. Turns out most of these assets on the balance sheet were FTX's own FTT tokens.

Founded by SBF three