Binance Says It Will Not Acquire FTX
It’s official. Binance will not be purchasing FTX. One day after Binance announced its intent to buy its collapsing competitor, the company has now announced it will walk away from the deal, according to an initial report from the Wall Street Journal. This comes after days of animosity shared between FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao that was felt throughout the crypto industry.
Till now, Binance’s potential purchase of FTX has had the collective crypto and NFT communities on edge. But it seems fears might not be assuaged anytime soon, since, without a support system to help FTX through its current liquidity crunch, it’s unclear what will become of the crypto-exchange giant.
The Binance buyout: what happened?
On the morning of Tuesday, November 8, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao confirmed that Binance is seeking to acquire FTX. Taking to Twitter, both executives noted that the move stems from an FTX liquidity crunch, which has resulted in a lack of cash or easily convertible to cash assets on hand for FTX to disseminate to its customers.
But just one day after Binance began due diligence (DD) to help the company further understand the state of FTX, sources familiar with the matter told CoinDesk that the deal might be developing in an entirely different direction — with the source (who wasn’t named) saying it’s highly unlikely that Binance will go through with its acquisition of FTX.
Now, suspicion has come to fruition — as Binance is backing out of a deal supported only by a nonbinding letter of intent (LOI). But perhaps this was predictable, as Zhao had continued to comment on the flexibility of the deal, alluding to Binance’s discretion to pull out at any time.
What’s next
Considering Bankman-Fried and Zhao’s complicated past, it’s too early to say if the two will leave the failed deal on good terms, or return to antagonizing each other in public. Regardless, the Earth-shaking events surrounding the acquisition have already created major ripples throughout the blockchain ecosystem, with the price of FTX’s native token, FTT, plunging 80 percent since announcements were first made.
Since Zhao declared Binance’s plan to liquidate its remaining FTT token holdings a few days ago, many had speculated that the Binance acquisition was possibly part of a bigger play from the company. But Zhao attempted to assuage these fears in a note sent out to Binance employees on November 9, saying Binance’s potential selloff was orchestrated before any communications between Binance and FTX, and is apparently on hold, as of writing.
This story is developing and will be updated as new information becomes available.
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