Binance To Acquire FTX (techcrunch.com) 26
Binance has signed a non-binding, letter of intent to acquire FTX, the two firms said, delivering a surprising twist amid the public feud between the world's two largest crypto exchanges that contributed to several tokens taking a tumble Tuesday. The firms didn't disclose the value of the deal, pending the due diligence process. From a report: In a series of tweets, Binance founder and chief executive Changpeng Zhao said Binance made the decision after FTX reached out to the firm for help. "To protect users, we signed a non-binding LOI, intending to fully acquire FTX and help cover the liquidity crunch. We will be conducting a full DD in the coming days," he said. Binance, the world's largest exchange, is the first investor that backed FTX, but as the younger firm grew in popularity, the relationship between the two firms started to wither.
Maybe (Score:2)
They shouldn't have spent all that fiat on sponsorships and they could cover their losses.
:thinking_face: (Score:4, Funny)
So let me get this straight:
1. Binance liquidates their bullshit FTX token holdings before the bottom falls out
2. it causes a liquidity crunch [slashdot.org] as everyone else sees this as a bad sign and starts a run on FTX
3. Binance comes to the rescue to acquire FTX, warning of "volatility" in their bullshit token
Anyone else see anything fishy there? Not that it matters since it's all fake money anyway and the only losers in such a manipulation are rubes that already gave their money to these frauds anyway.
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It's almost like the whole sector has been about ripping people off, washing the funds, and making off with them before anyone can connect the dots.
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What are the odds that Binance is just an "offshore" (haha) front for the CCP. They play some tricky games over there.
Of course it's fishy (Score:3)
Crypto is fraud, nothing more than a fancied Ponzi Scheme.
As explained in this insightful YouTube video [youtube.com], a blockchain is nothing more than an organized append-only hash chain data structure. Someone decided one day to create a way of storing a unique signature into this data structure and selling that signature to someone dumb enough not to know what they were buying, and boom, crypto was born.
When word spread of the gold in 'dem hills, the millennial equivalent of last century's forty-niners bum-rushed th
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And right now crypto is having a crash. Basically everything down 10% in the last hour.
Watch the rubes panic!
Re::thinking_face: (Score:4, Interesting)
I think I can honestly say its Crypto living up to its promises. It promised a money based on code instead of trust. And that's exactly whats going on here: No government interference, just commerce according to code.
Is that a good thing? I don't think so, but I can't argue with the facts. Moral judgments on this experience may differ, and likely these outcomes were not what the super optimistic joe bloe crypto dude with under a million to invest was thinking. Like this happened to a literal billionaire. An individual investor is no less immune to the effects of these markets.
Interesting times... (Score:2, Informative)
That's surprising news, but then I don't generally follow all of the drama with the various crypto finance companies so maybe it was not really all that surprising...
It caused a nice jump in BTC, but I have to wonder if this is not a flag there may be more danger ahead for crypto? I mean they mentioned that part about having to do DD, and why would there even be an offer like this if FTX were not actually in trouble, which they were denying.
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And suddenly basically all crypto is down 10% or more in the last hour. Happy Tuesday, crypto-bros!
Just saw that (Score:1)
And suddenly basically all crypto is down 10% or more in the last hour.
Holy cow! I just saw that, so that spike I saw when I posted was a crazy bull trap!
I don't mind some volatility in an asset but crypto just has too many skeletons in too many closets still... and any way can trigger a massive fall at any time, even large jumps up are no sign of safety.
Thing is, it's hard to even define for myself what are acceptable criteria for getting back into crypto... Maybe a solid year without major surprises?
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Oh, this is the opposite of pump and dump.
Binance dumped an asset that they saw was troubled - FTT - and they got out in a big and public way, causing a run on FTT.
Shockingly, FTX found out that they didn't have enough cash to cover the run on FTT started by Binance and knew they were fucked.
Binance then came calling with that troll grin on their face saying that they would love to buy them at a massive discount over what they were even worth two days ago. FTX could either agree, or file for bankruptcy pro
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Ponzi World - read interview (Score:2)
Addendum to my last post, look at the guy running FTT in an interview describing how all of these things really are giant Ponzi schemes [substack.com] - yes he actually uses that term.
Unknown value (Score:4, Informative)
The firms didn't disclose the value of the deal
That's because the deal is in Bitcoin, which means FTX could be worth ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND BAZILLION dollars tomorrow, or $3.95 the next day. In play money of course...
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We'll give you this much pretend money, then you give us control over your imaginary pile of pretend money!
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The US dollar has plenty of faults, but at least its true value - or whatever's left of it - doesn't depend on how much of a sucker you are.
Unless of course you view official currencies as monopoly money that an overwhelming majority of suckers choose to ascribe value to - which is essentially what they are at the end of the day. But at least with the dollar, you may be a fool, but it doesn't matter because everybody is. With cryptocurrency, you look like an idiot at the best of times, and a greedy get-rich
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It buys 10% more gold today than it did this time a year ago.
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Seems a great deal over the past year compared to anything else, tbh.
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FTX was valued at $32B earlier this year in a financing round. So there's real VC investors with real money that are going to take this one in the ass depending on how much they own - I'd put the odds of Binance paying them $32B for FTX at roughly 0.0%.
They'll be lucky to get what's on the balance sheet.