Sam Bankman-Fried deleted his tweet saying FTX 'assets are fine' on the day he announced his Binance deal

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Sam Bankman-Fried deleted his tweet saying FTX 'assets are fine' on the day he announced his Binance deal
Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of crypto exchange FTX.Tom Williams/Getty Images
  • The billionaire founders of cryptocurrency exchanges FTX and Binance sparred on Twitter Sunday.
  • FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried tweeted and then deleted that FTX and its assets "are fine."
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A tweet sent by FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried on Monday saying that his cryptocurrency exchange and its assets "are fine" were deleted the same day the CEO announced his deal with rival Binance.

The tweet was sent while the cryptocurrency tycoon was sparring with Binance on Twitter. The tweet, in which Bankman-Fried blamed "a competitor" for "trying to go after us with false rumors," no longer shows up on his profile as of Wednesday.

Bankman-Fried's tweet was in response to a tweet from Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, who tweeted on Sunday that, "due to recent revelations that have came to light," Binance was liquidating the remaining FTT, an FTX-native crypto token, on its books.

Sam Bankman-Fried deleted his tweet saying FTX 'assets are fine' on the day he announced his Binance deal
A screenshot, captured Tuesday, of Sam Bankman-Fried's Twitter profile.Internet Archive/WayBackMachine
Amid Bankman-Fried's tweet, around $6 billion was withdrawn from FTX in the 72 hours before his announcement on Tuesday morning, according to a staff memo from Bankman-Fried cited by Reuters.

A screenshot captured by the Internet Archive's WayBack Machine shows the tweet was still up on Tuesday, the same day Bankman-Fried announced on Twitter that FTX had "come to an agreement on a strategic transaction with Binance for FTX.com."

Bankman-Fried also changed his tone from blaming Binance, to thanking it, Zhao, and FTX supporters in the announcement.

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"I know that there have been rumors in media of conflict between our two exchanges, however Binance has shown time and again that they are committed to a more decentralized global economy while working to improve industry relations with regulators," Bankman-Fried said on Twitter.

When Bankman-Fried tweeted that FTX and its assets are "fine" on Monday, he was one of the wealthiest people in the world, sitting on a net worth of $16 billion.

But Bankman-Fried has since lost 94% of his net worth, Bloomberg reported. The loss is the largest one-day wealth collapse for a billionaire.

Following the acquisition announcement, the cryptocurrency market fell amid uncertainties with the industry's liquidity. In Zhao's announcement about the deal, he said FTX asked for Binance's help during "a significant liquidity crunch."

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