Cryptocurrencies: the giant Binance buys its rival FTX

This is a huge surprise and the biggest consolidation operation ever seen in the crypto-asset sector.

Global cryptocurrency giant Binance has signed a letter of intent to acquire one of its big rivals, FTX.

This operation follows a serious liquidity crisis which affected the cryptocurrency exchange platform led by Sam Bankman-Fried.

The latter was until now seen as one of the market consolidators.

https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1590013613586411520?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet%7Ctwtr%5Etrue

Concerns around the FTX trading platform have arisen since November 2 and the publication, by the media CoinDesk, of a financial document revealing that one of the companies of Sam Bankman Fried, Alameda Research, held a very large amount of FTT, the ecosystem token of FTX, the exchange also owned by Sam Bankman Fried.

Following this publication, Binance's boss announced that he was getting rid of all his FTT tokens, i.e. $529 million of FTT that Binance held as part of an exit from FTX's capital.

This announcement caused the price of FFT to drop drastically, dragging FTX into turmoil.

Another crisis of confidence

The scenario recalled in a sense the disastrous example of Luna, this foundation whose cryptocurrency terra collapsed last May and whose founder is now wanted by Interpol.

"

," Changpeng Zhao tweeted.

On Monday, Sam Bankman-Fried reported that all FTX assets were doing well.

He has obviously changed his mind since.

The surprise is all the greater since since the start of the cryptocurrency crisis, the companies FTX and Alameda Research had rather become suppliers of rescue loans to players in difficulty.

“

” warns Fawad Razaqzada, analyst at City Index.