Binance‘s Changpeng Zhao “CZ,” like the rest of us, is clearly dissatisfied with Sam Bankman-Fried. Taking to Twitter today, he mocked CNBC’s Kevin O’Leary for defending the disgraced FTX founder despite the fact that O’Leary himself had lost $15 million because of the firm.
CZ stated his company exited FTX in July 2021, and since that time the bankrupt exchange had invested over $5 billion in a wide variety of enterprises, a screenshot of which was provided by CZ. He said:
“On top of that, FTX spent money on Miami Stadium, multiple Super Bowl ads, baseball referees, F1, not to mention massive political donations and luxury real-estate. Oh, and reprehensible misuse of customer funds.”
Having his name attached to one of the worst financial scams in history is perhaps worse than losing $15 million, so you’d think it would make Kevin O’Leary think carefully before taking SBF at his word AGAIN, says CZ.
Recall that Binance almost stepped in to save FTX last month before the exchange failed, but ultimately decided against it. CZ said that, in contrast to O’Leary, his firm and he do more research after making an investment.
When Binance, an early FTX investor, began to feel uneasy about the Alameda/SBF situation in 2021, it began the process of pulling out of the exchange. When the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world chose to withdraw out as an investor, SBF apparently went off the rails, launching a series of insulting tirades at various members of the Binance team and threatening to go to “extraordinary lengths to make them pay.”
“We still have those text messages,” says CZ. SBF soon started investing in media, lawmakers, and celebrity friends (like O’Leary). CZ said he utilized that network to attack him and others in the sector.
