CZ: Never seriously considered acquiring FTX, not very interested in helping SBF

According to CoinDesk, Binance founder CZ stated in his autobiography "Freedom of Money" that during a phone call before Binance attempted to acquire FTX in November 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried "casually asked him for tens of billions of dollars, as if ordering a bologna sandwich," and he never intended to actually push through with the deal from the start.

CZ wrote: "I had no interest in owning FTX, and I wasn't particularly interested in helping SBF either. But we might have to step in to protect users and the entire industry." He noted that he signed the non-binding letter of intent (LOI) just for formality: "I had made it clear at the time that we would not make any commitments. Our team was just evaluating the data before deciding."

Regarding the collapse of FTX, CZ believes the key turning point was when former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison publicly proposed to buy back the FTT held by Binance at a price of $22 (attempting to stabilize the market), which she made a "fatal mistake." "She effectively exposed the price floor," CZ wrote. Subsequently, professional traders quickly shorted FTT below that price. Within just 72 hours, about $6 billion flowed out of FTX.

CZ also revealed a Signal group called "Exchange Collaboration," which was created by former FTX institutional sales head Zane Tackett during the collapse of Terra (LUNA) that year, with members including CZ, SBF, Brian Armstrong (Coinbase CEO), Jesse Powell (founder of Kraken), and other exchange executives. The group later attracted the attention of investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission. "They were very eager to find evidence of collusion or market manipulation between exchanges, but in fact, there was none," CZ stated.