The divine, invincible, lord of the stablecoins, the winner of Terra-Luna, the knight in shining armor, Sam Bankman-Fried, noticeably faded today against the background of the collapse of his FTX exchange, as well as the exchange token FTT by 80%. How did it come about that FTX (a multibillion-dollar company) almost died overnight? And why is this a divine-level strategic move from CZBinance? So, it started years ago. Binance was one of the first investors in FTX. But the FTX is starting to grow like crazy. They become the largest Exchange No. 2 in the world. Steph Curry, Tom Brady, made huge marketing deals. SBF is becoming a renowned cryptocurrency liquidity provider. Sam Bankman-Fried is called the next Warren Buffett on the first cover of Fortune.

They started out as friends and then became competitors. Binance #1, FTX #2 (coinbase and others are noticeably smaller). Binance then decides to sell its stake in FTX. As part of the buyout, they agreed to receive $ 2 billion from them in the FTT token, which was created by FTX for trading commissions within the exchange. So now Binance and FTX are friendly competitors. Binance owns a bunch of FTT ($2 billion). But the trading volume of FTT is small (this will soon become important). But suddenly, two days ago, CZ comes out and says that the SBF (Sam Bankman-Fried) was talking shit about them to regulators (and he did say that) and that lobbying for FTX in this way could hurt Binance.

Therefore, CZ publicly announces on Twitter to its 7 million followers that it is going to drop all its FTT wrappers for $ 2 billion. And then the pressure on the market for $ 2 billion from sellers will bring down the price. So they start to panic selling everything. The price of FTT drops by about 15-20% overnight. However, no one wants to buy an FTT (too risky, a whale is about to fall) and everyone wants to sell. The coin goes to the bottom. If you look at Alameda, the hedge fund/market maker that Sam started before the FTX, they are of course kings. But news leaks show that the king is naked. They have about $12 billion in assets, 7 billion in liabilities... but half of their "assets" are in the FTT token, which is plummeting and illiquid. Alameda can die.

Well, if Alemeda has problems, then FTX has an automatic too. After all, these are related companies. Market makers at FTX decided that it was possible to trade client deposits. This relationship has been unclear for years. (That was Achilles' heel.) But most people think of FTX as a blue chip company. Sam is famous. He's an absolute genius, right? They are waiting for him personally or Alameda to show that they are in good health. But they are seriously ill. Sam tweets that it's "okay." But it's more like "it's all gone." The CEO of Alemeda comes out and says they will "happily" buy the FTT token when it falls. But 24 hours pass and if they had financial power, they would have already shown it. But no. People are starting to go crazy and are rushing out with FTX. The withdrawals exceed $1 billion, and the FTX is facing a liquidity crisis.

Then a little silence, withdrawals to FTX are suspended. Sam then comes out today and announces that they are making a "strategic deal" with Binance. A strategic deal? This is the best passphrase in the crypt. CZ then dots all the i's: "FTX had problems. We bought them to save them." Binance, in fact, spread rumors, threatened and eventually bought its biggest competitor overnight. At the moment, the drama is coming to an end. The cryptocurrency crisis is almost averted. Or not yet? Bitcoin reached $18K. If the FTX burst, it would be devastating to the entire crypto industry. Sam Bankman-Fried, a brilliant billionaire in shorts, who sent 4 crypto projects to the other world, safely killed himself. And who is the king here? Tricky CZ of course. But nothing lasts forever under the moon...