Watch: Crypto.com exec refuses to answer questions on FTX Binance feud – twice!
Crypto.com’s chief operating officer (COO) Eric Anziani twice refused to comment on the ongoing Binance and FTX “spat” in a Bloomberg interview
When asked similar questions by two separate Bloomberg anchors, Anziani avoided commenting on the issue to such an extent one of the anchors David Ingles asked: “So, I guess, you do not want to comment on this?”
In response the first question – “Is this potentially a big market event?” – Anziani said: “At Crypto.com, we are really focused on growing the industry forward so our goal is to offer amazing products that will drive value for our customers.”
Ingles followed this up and asked: “What message do you think it sends… when you see two big players of your same industry almost go at it?”
Anziani replied: “We want to work together… with all stakeholders”. He went to say that what matters to Crypto.com is how to drive up user numbers, adding: “And we should work collectively to drive towards that goal.”
FTT to USD
What happened between Binance and FTX?
The interview followed the decision by Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, to get rid of all of its holdings of the FTX token (FTT) – the native token of the cryptocurrency derivatives exchange FTX.
This was announced by Binance founder and CEO, Changpeng Zhao via Twitter on 6 November.
The Binance CEO made the statement after CoinDesk reported that Alameda Research, the quantitative crypto trading firm founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX, raised concerns over the extent to which the two companies, FTX and Alameda Research, operate as separate institutions.
Alameda offered to buy FTT
Alameda’s CEO Caroline Ellison wrote that the leaked document that the CoinDesk article was based on was for “a subset of our corporate entities”. Ellison then offered to buy all of Binance’s FTT tokens for $22 each.
At the time of writing on 8 November, FTT was down by 34% compared with the previous day, according to CoinMarketCap.
Commenting on liquidating Binance’s FTT stash, Zhao said the sale would be done over a period of time to “minimise market impact.” He added: “Due to market conditions and limited liquidity, we expect this will take a few months to complete.
“We typically hold tokens for the long term. And we have held on to this token for this long. We stay transparent with our actions.”
FTX CEO responds to ‘false rumours’
In a tweet that has since been deleted, the CEO of FTX responded to Zhao’s tweet and said: “A competitor is trying to go after us with false rumours. FTX is fine. Assets are fine.”
The deleted tweet from SBF’s Twitter account – Credit: Twitter.comHowever, Bankman-Fried added that he would “love it” if Zhao and himself could work together.
SBF’s ‘I'd love it‘ tweet – Credit: Twitter.comRelated topics
