Binance CEO Says No 'Master Plan' To Take Over FTX, Warns Employees 'DO NOT Trade FTT Tokens'

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao on Wednesday asserted he did not “master plan” the deal with FTX and the failure of Sam Bankman-Fried's cryptocurrency exchange was in no way a win for the world’s largest digital assets exchange.

In an internal note written to Binance employees reviewed by Benzinga, Zhao also warned against buying or selling FTX Tokens FTT/USD and that after his call with Bankman-Fried, he ordered his team to sell the tokens as a company.

“We did not master plan this or anything related to it. It was less than 24 hrs ago that SBF called me. And before that, I had very little knowledge of the internal state of things at FTX. I could do some mental calculations with our revenues to guess theirs, but it would never be very accurate. I was surprised when he wanted to talk. My first reaction was, he wants to do an OTC deal,” he stated.

Also read: Billionaire Mike Novogratz Takes Another Hit: First Luna, Now FTX Is Costing His Crypto Firm Millions

Do Not Trade In FTT Tokens: Zhao

“As the due diligence for the deal is ongoing, I want to remind everyone: DO NOT trade FTT tokens. If you have a bag, you have a bag. DO NOT buy or sell. As soon as I finished the call with SBF yesterday, I asked our team to stop selling as an organization. Yes, we have a bag. But that's ok,” he added.

The Binance BNB/USD CEO further said that FTX going down was not good for anyone in the industry and that it was not a win for Binance as user confidence has been severely shaken, regulators will scrutinize exchanges even more, and that licenses around the globe will be harder to get.

“And people now think we are the biggest and will attack us more. But that's OK, we are used to being open and leaning into headwinds. In fact, we embrace scrutiny,” he said.

Binance Very Unlikely To Buy FTX

Meanwhile, Binance is "very unlikely" to move forward with its proposed takeover of beleaguered rival FTX after less than a day of evaluating the business.

Binance's non-binding letter of intent for the acquisition, which was made public on Tuesday as FTX's financial crisis appeared to be spiraling out of control, included a clause requiring due diligence.

FTX's internal data and loan agreements were examined by Binance for almost half a day before the firm decision to reject the deal was made, according to a Coindesk report.

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Photo: Created with an image from binance.com