Websites linked to crypto exchange FTX have been taken down on Nov. 9 following a liquidity crisis and pending acquisition of the company by its rival Binance. Websites for Alameda Research and the company’s venture capital arm, FTX Ventures, were offline and made private, while both FTX’s main site and FTX US’ website remain accessible.
Cointelegraph reached out to Alameda on Nov. 9 but did not hear back as of publication time. The latest developments include unconfirmed reports that most of FTX’s legal and compliance staff quit on Nov. 8.
FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, or SBF, revealed the liquidity crunch on Nov. 8, just hours after he guaranteed that clients’ “assets are fine,” adding that the exchange did not invest clients’ holdings, even in treasuries.
The crisis unfolded after Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, or CZ, disclosed Binance’s decision to liquidate its position of 23 million FTX Token (FTT) — worth over $520 million at the beginning of this week — for risk management reasons. The news triggered a sell-off of FTT, which was trading at $3.00 as of publication time — a fall of 87.11% in seven days.
As reported by Cointelegraph, some of FTX’s shareholders learned about the agreement via Twitter on Nov. 8. In his letter to the exchange’s investors, SBF apologized for being “hard to contact” in the past days, acknowledged he has no idea what exactly the agreement with Binance means, and lastly, closed the letter saying he will be “quite swamped” in the coming days and will write again “when I have time too.”
The next steps remain unclear. Binance is reportedly performing due diligence and may opt to walk away from the deal after reviewing the company’s structure and books, reported the Wall Street Journal, citing unidentified sources.
FTX was backed by big players in the venture capital scene, including Singapore’s state-owned investment firm Temasek, Sequoia Capital, BlackRock, SoftBank, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Paradigm, Circle, Ribbit Capital, Alan Howard, Tiger Global and Multicoin Capital.
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