Life in the cryptocurrency industry is rarely quiet for long, and after a tumultuous summer, it seems the market is now entering a “crypto winter”. Over the past week, the founders of two of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges – Binance and FTX – have had a public Twitter spat that triggered the collapse of one exchange and a failed bailout deal from the other. Unsurprisingly, these events have caused widespread panic across a market that has barely recovered from several major failures earlier this year.
Binance, which is estimated to be worth more than US$300 billion (£263 billion), was actually FTX’s first investor in December 2019. Since then, FTX has grown to be worth more than US$32 billion as of last January, counting mainstream finance giants such as BlackRock and SoftBank among its many backers.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (often referred to as CZ and SBF, respectively) are two of the most influential people in the cryptocurrency exchange world where investors can buy, sell and store digital currencies. While Zhao has been associated with regulatory concerns around Binance, Bankman-Fried was seen as a relatively stable and ambitious figure in the wild west world of cryptocurrencies. He swooped in to rescue failing companies during last summer’s crypto bust and has made a point of speaking with the media and US policymakers.
