Throughout an ask-me-anything (AMA) session on Twitter Areas on Nov. 14, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, also referred to as CZ, urged crypto customers to take accountability for his or her funding choices and never put all the blame on others when issues go south.
“As a consumer, you even have accountability — you may’t simply blame all the accountability to different folks. When unhealthy issues occur, when you blame all the accountability, if it’s at all times to different folks, you’ll by no means achieve success. You might be additionally at all times wanting on the most accountable particular person to your self, which is your self.”
The assertion got here in response to a query about whether or not Binance ought to reimburse customers who’ve misplaced cash in FTX. A participant within the AMA alleged that Binance gave credibility to FTX and will have additionally profited from funds that belonged to customers. The questioner requested CZ whether or not Binance ought to give again the cash it just lately constructed from promoting its bag of FTX’s utility token, FTX Token (FTT).
Binance first invested in FTX in December 2019. In July 2021, the corporate bought its shares for $2.1 billion price of Binance USD (BUSD) and FTT. Final week, Binance introduced that it could be promoting all of its FTT over the subsequent few months. Nevertheless, Binance was unable to finish the sale earlier than FTX suffered a liquidity disaster and filed for chapter.
Full disclosure: Binance by no means shorted FTT. We nonetheless have a bag of as we stopped promoting FTT after SBF referred to as me. Very costly name. https://t.co/3A6wyFPGlm
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) November 14, 2022
CZ responded by emphasizing the general public nature of Binance’s trades, noting that the corporate entered early and exited early, and each transactions have been publicly seen. “We didn’t cover it, and we didn’t, not disclose it,” he mentioned.
He additionally said that Binance solely bought a small quantity of its FTT, claiming that the remainder remains to be within the firm’s possession and that it has taken losses on the holding like everybody else:
“We had $580 million price of FTT. We bought a small portion of it. We nonetheless have a big bag. So, I feel we acted in very moral methods.”
Regardless of this protection of Binance’s actions, CZ additionally sought to seek out frequent floor with the questioner. He mentioned that Binance would attempt to assist FTX customers as a lot because it may within the spirit of development inside the business. Alternatively, he mentioned he didn’t need to “create a scenario the place something that goes down within the business, Binance has to pay for it.”
On the finish of his reply, CZ admitted that giant, institutional traders do share some accountability for giving credibility to FTX:
“The VC [venture capital] traders, together with us, why did we spend money on them? I feel that accusation was truly considerably correct. All of the VC traders that invested in FTX made a mistake, and plenty of of them are very skilled traders. Why did they not uncover this drawback?”
