"Regarding any speculation as to whether this is a move against a competitor, it is not" said Binance CEO 'CZ' on Twitter, while confirming "recent revelations that have come to light" are behind a decision to sell-off $2.1 billion USD worth of FTT, the native token of rival exchange FTX.
Binance first obtained the tokens last year, as part of their payment from a pre-planned exit from investment in FTX equity.
Can't Have it Both Ways...
CZ first attempts to include the FTT sell-off as part of everyday 'business-as-usual' saying:
"Liquidating our FTT is just post-exit risk management, learning from LUNA."
That sounds like he's saying it's a purely strategic move, like the reasoning behind it could be something as simple as not believing the bear market has hit bottom - until in his next sentence where he immediately makes it clear - there's more to this story.
"We gave support before, but we won't pretend to make love after divorce. We are not against anyone. But we won't support people who lobby against other industry players behind their backs. Onwards."
FTX is accused as a company, or perhaps CEO Sam Bankman-Fried himself of doing something behind the scenes, with at least the goal of hurting a competing crypto company...
At least that seems to be the accusation CZ, the Binance CEO, is making, although vaguely, and because of their mention of LUNA (which famously crashed, then crashed the market, and never recovered) and FTT together - the FTX CEO has been trying to assure customers that their token has none of the same risk factors (and from what we can see, that's true).
Any comparison of FTT with LUNA is a bit unfair...
There's no reason for CZ to bring back memories of the LUNA disaster when mentioning FTT - none of LUNA's risk factors can be applied to FTT.
"A competitor is trying to go after us with false rumors. FTX is fine. Assets are fine" said CEO Sam Bankman-Fried his first public response.
However - Binance CEO CZ has proven to be a level-headed voice of reason in the industry, and seems to have a reasonable outlook on the 'big picture' of cryptos future - so if he's accusing FTX or their CEO of crossing a line, it's probably true.
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Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle Newsdesk /
