The bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency exchange Binance has taken the decision not to move forward with the acquisition of the FTX exchange, due to “the mismanagement of customer funds” that the company has had.
The company led by Changpeng Zhao reported that, given the mishandling and added to the alleged investigations by US regulatory agencies, they have made the decision not to pursue “the possible acquisition of FTX,” they explained via Twitter.
“Initially, our hope was to be able to help FTX customers provide liquidity, but the problems are beyond our control or ability to help,” Binance stated.
Binance argues that those who will suffer are retail investors, but otherwise, they believe the ecosystem is becoming “more resilient” and over time those who make “misuse of user funds will be eliminated by the free market.”
In this regard, he believes that the industry will emerge stronger as regulations continue to develop and the sector continues to evolve towards greater decentralization.
For his part, Zhao commented that it was a sad day for the industry and that he tried his best to save FTX, but it was not possible.
Binance’s purchase of FTX, had been agreed yesterday, because of “a major liquidity crisis,” Zhao explained via Twitter. The intention was to fully acquire FTX to help cover the liquidity problem.
FTX companies flee the internet
As FTX continues to collapse, companies related to the exchange and its CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, are disappearing from the internet.
Those companies are Alameda Research and FTX Ventures, upon doing an internet search it can be evidenced that the websites of both companies are not enabled.
One of them claims to be now private, while the other was removed, generating more uncertainty.
FTX crisis affects bitcoin price
The collapse of FTX, one of the world’s largest exchanges, sent bitcoin below the $16,000 mark for the first time in two years. The last time BTC was at that level was in November 2020, this media outlet reported.
BTC has fallen about 20% in its market price. Apart from bitcoin and the rest of the cryptocurrency prices that have been affected, one of the worst hit has been the FTT token on the FTX exchange.
FTT fell 90% from USD 25 to USD 2.2 in two days, as evidenced by CoinMarketCap.
The community talks about FTX
Personalities in the Bitcoin ecosystem have also taken the opportunity to make their positions on the FTX case known.
David Bailey, CEO of BitcoinMagazine, was emphatic in saying that what was done by FTX, represents “criminal behavior” and considers that the “accomplices should spend time in jail”.
For Edward Snowden, a former CIA agent accused by the U.S. government of revealing state secrets, “escrow exchanges are a mistake”.
The collapse of FTX was compared to the case of Lehman Brothers bank, catalyst of the US financial crisis in 2008, commented Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle.
For Allaire, the causes of the collapse of many of these projects are related to the lack of transparency, as well as the lack of visibility of the treasuries and balance sheets of projects anchored in speculative tokens.
He also believes that the lack of regulatory frameworks in the United States allows investors to operate in a high-risk ecosystem.
