The crypto world turned upside on Tuesday as the CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), announced his company has signed a letter of intent to buy rival FTX. The deal, which comes after CZ feuded openly with FTX's CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) over the weekend, marks a shock collapse of a company that many viewed as the future of crypto, and leaves Binance as the undisputed king of the industry.
Rumors of FTX's potential implosion had been circulating for 48 hours with some fretting that the company would share the infamous fate of Celsius and Voyager—large crypto firms that blew up unexpectedly in the spring and appeared to raid customer funds in a desperate bid to stay solvent. It appears that won't be the case as SBF stated that the deal will safeguard customer funds:
