Sam Bankman-Fried Accuses Binance CEO Of ‘Targeted Attack’ On Alameda’s Assets

Sam Bankman-Fried accused Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, with orchestrating the liquidity crisis that ultimately led to FTX’s demise.

iexclusivenews reports that early in November, Zhao tweeted that Binance would sell its holdings of FTX’s native token.

Citing a CoinDesk article that claimed that Alameda Research’s assets were largely made up of FTT.

Massive withdrawals from FTX followed, and a few days later, the company declared bankruptcy.

Since then, Bankman-Fried previously had only hinted at Zhao’s role in the chain of events. But in a Substack post on Thursday, he took direct aim at his one-time rival.

“In November 2022, an extreme, quick, targeted crash precipitated by the CEO of Binance made Alameda insolvent,” Bankman-Fried said.

He went on to say that the Alameda virus spread to FTX and other crypto platforms. Similar to how the collapse of Three Arrows in the spring of 2022 reached Voyager and other crypto platforms.

What You Should Know

To be sure, Bankman-Fried blamed the FTX crash on a variety of factors. Including Alameda’s failure to adequately hedge its exposure.

Last year’s crypto market crashes resulted in a roughly 80% drop in the value of Alameda’s assets.

“But the November crash was a targeted attack on assets held by Alameda, not a broad market move,” he added. “Over the few days in November, Alameda’s assets fell roughly 50%.”

For his part, Zhao has downplayed his role in FTX’s collapse, saying. “I think we were the last straw that broke the camel’s back. It’s not a straw that is really strong.”

Binance agreed to take over FTX and save Bankman-Fried on November 8, but withdrew a day later due to concerns raised during due diligence.

FTX declared bankruptcy on November 11 and is currently led by new CEO John Ray III.

However, iexclusivenews Nigeria reports that in December, Bankman-Fried was charged with fraud and pleaded not guilty.

Bankman-Fried also stated in his Substack post that FTX International had $8 billion in assets when Ray took over.

He also expressed regret for FTX’s bankruptcy filing, claiming that customers can still recover a substantial portion of their assets.