Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao, has sent out signs that he is not interested in Alameda’s offer to buy its FTT tokens. CZ, as he is popularly called, announced on Monday that Binance is planning to liquidate its FTT holdings.
Rejected Offers
FTT’s CEO, Caroline Ellison, responded to CZ on Twitter the same day by saying Alameda would buy the tokens. Ellison, however, pegged the offer to CZ at $22 per token. Alameda made the offer most importantly to prevent the effect of such a large dump of FTT on the market.
CZ has now appeared to have no interest in selling to Alameda. FTT currently sells at $17.58 at the time of this report.
To Ellison’s question asking if CZ would take an offer of $22/FTT, he simply answered that Binance will stay in the free market. The response got the market confused as to what staying in the free market really means for Binance.
There were initial speculations that CZ and Binance were rethinking their selling decision. But CZ has said that he would be selling in such a way that it would reduce the impact of the dump on the market. As a result, he said selling the tokens will take a few months to be completed.
Binance holds FTT and BUSD tokens worth $2.1 billion. The exchange has not officially responded to the latest comments on its intended sales.
A Malicious Rumor?
Amidst all these plays, Nasen has released data that shows stablecoins worth up to $451 million exiting FTX. The panic withdrawal is allegedly due to rumors that Alameda is hit with a financial crisis and might face insolvency.
The rumors only got compounded by Binance’s decision to liquidate its FTT assets. Recent comments from CZ could also be further catalysts for the panic.
FTX users expressed their fears on Twitter on Monday while they waited for an official FTX statement. They bemoaned why the crypto exchange did not come out to alley users’ fears on time.
In his statement, FTX founder and CEO, Sam Bankman-fried, blamed “a competitor.” He said the exchange is the victim of a malicious target from a competitor spreading a false rumor.
CZ, on the other hand, has stated that he is not in conflict with either Bankman-fried or FTX. He said via Twitter on Monday that he expends his energy on building rather than fighting.