CZ Opens Up on Binance-FTX Breakup

[nihalsari]

Changpeng Zhao (CZ) gave one of his most detailed accounts yet of Binance’s relationship with FTX on the All-In Podcast. He traced it back to early 2019 when he first met Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) at a Singapore conference. Initially, Alameda Research — the precursor to FTX — was a major trading client, and Binance even invested in FTX, taking a 20% equity stake.

Despite early cooperation, CZ said tensions grew quickly: FTX allegedly recruited Binance staff with high salaries and badmouthed Binance in regulatory circles. By early 2021, Binance opted to exit its FTX investment, finalizing the sale a year and a half before FTX collapsed in 2022. CZ stressed that Binance had no inside knowledge of the impending crisis.

[kevin1]

recruiting binance staff with high salaries sounds like classic sbf energy, no wonder tensions grew