Binance pulls the plug on the FTX deal
In yet another twist of events, Binance has decided to pull the plug on the deal to acquire FTX. But why the sudden change of heart?
The reasons given
Binance official twitter made it public earlier today that they indeed were pulling the plug on the deal. And in the tweet, they gave a few reasons for doing so.
They are citing that they discovered mishandling of customer funds during their due diligence. As well as alleged US agency investigations. These investigations will presumably be regarding the mishandling of customers' funds. So while it initially may look like two reasons, it is most likely the same underlying reason.
Sadly this was pretty much to be expected after Sam Bankman-Fried Deleted a pair of tweets he made. But thanks to the WayBack Machine we can of course view them. As well as the myriad of screenshots people took of them. As they say, nothing disappears from the internet. https://web.archive.org/web/20221108053228/https://twitter.com/SBF_FTX
In these tweets Bankman, the CEO of FTX assures everyone that the assets are fine. As well as assuring everyone that FTX has enough to cover all client holdings. And that they do not invest client assets. Things that look like they very much are not true. And Bankman desperately deleting the tweets more or less confirms this. He was probably hoping the deal with Binance would go through and people would forget about the tweets. But alas, the internet does not forget.
By the looks of things, it appears to be a pretty much open-and-shut case for legal actions against Bankman. It might very well lead to him doing time for fraud in the US. Hopefully this will lead to people being able to get some money back through the courts.
What are your thoughts on this, are you surprised the deal fell through? Please share your thoughts in the comment section down below. If you would like to support me and the content I make, please consider following me, reading my other posts, or why not do both instead.
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Picture provided by: https://unsplash.com/
I hope everyone is having an ok day despite the recent day's turmoil.
Keep moving forward, keep up the good fight!
Binance pulls the plug on the FTX deal.
If you want to know more about why. Then all you have to do is click here:
https://medium.com/@bo.daniel.jensen/binance-pulls-the-plug-on-the-ftx-deal-f87f5aa313db
Binance wins the crypto war, buys FTX
In what is, as far as I know, an unprecedented move in crypto. Binance all but kills their main competitor FTX. Then offers an olive branch while their foot still is on their throat. Let us take a look at the events that led up to this.
The leaked financial report
The leaked financial report from Alameda Research on November 4th was most likely the silver bullet CZ, the CEO of Binance, was looking for. The crack in Sam Bankman-Fried´s FTX armor if you will. Looking over this CZ most likely saw one of the biggest opportunities in his life.
What he saw was that while there was a lot of crypto. A big chunk of Alameda Research´s $14.6 billion in assets was either loans. Around $8 billion, or more than half of the $14.6 billion were loans. Of the remaining billions, a lot of it was tied up in crypto projects like Bankmans own FTX, in $FTT tokens, or in Solana. This meant that even if they wanted to liquidate these tokens, they were more than likely not going to be able to do so. Not without hurting those projects, that Bankman was a part of.
The first shot fired in the great crypto war of 2022
This meant that CZ saw a golden opportunity. An opportunity to possibly get rid of Binance main competitor, and shut Bankman up at the same time. As it has been documented, at least on twitter, that the two CEOs appear to not be the best of friends. And not see eye to eye on a lot of things. The plan was set in motion on the day after, November 5th. This was done by Binance moving their massive hoard of 23 million $FTT tokens, valued at that moment at over €580 million.
Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win -Sun Tzu, The Art of War
This move is basically the first shot fired, and what can be described as an open declaration of war by Binance on FTX. And just like Sun Tzu said in the very famous book The Art of War. CZ very much was sure that his move would have the exact desired effect. The public response did not take long. The move of that many $FTT tokens onto Binance stoked the flame of fear in the people. Was a massive dump of $FTT tokens coming, hurry sell, sell, sell.
*Source: Coinmarketcap.com*
The $FTT token did take a nose dive after CZ made his intentions public to sell the tokens. And with the dive in price, on top of people probably being wearier now than ever of centralized institutions failing and locking up their crypto in their death spiral. People started, what is known as, a bank run. Everyone was trying to withdraw their crypto from FTX. And this of course had an even more detrimental effect on the $FTT token. Causing it to plummet even further.
The war
In an attempt to sue for peace, and go back to the previous state of open hostility. Alameda Research offered to buy all of Binance's $FTT tokens for $22 each. Something that from an isolated financial standpoint seemed like a good deal. Binance would be able to offload all their token to a good price, while not affecting the market.
*Caroline Ellison CEO of Alameda Research*
But of course, simply liquidating Binance's massive hoard of $FTT tokens was never the true goal. Killing off FTX was. So CZ declined the offer and said he would rather take the tokens to the public market. Making sure to hammer in that nail in the FTX coffin that he had built. And with Binance's intention to sell the tokens publicly. Of course, the public would jump on the opportunity to sell their own tokens before the massive dump would take place.
In a show of strength, or desperation depending on how you chose to look at it. They tried to stave off the bleeding and calm everyone down. Tweeting and saying they in fact were very liquid, holding over $10 billion in assets.
The capitulation
In what can only be viewed as a capitulation, FTX when silent as they also froze every customer's assets. And with that making, every holder of crypto´s worst nightmare come true. The dreaded "not your keys, not your crypto" scenario.
Behind the scenes, Bankman was courting every actor he could think of. Looking for someone to either buy FTC or be able to bail them out. But as their deficit was getting ever larger, this was looking more and more unlikely by the minute.
*Probably the biggest capitulation in crypto history*
But what can only be described as a Night M. Shaymalaian twist. CZ and Binance step up and offer to buy out FTX.com. They a, as they say, trying to help with the liquidity and "saving" people crypto. Having signed a non-binding LOI, or Letter Of Intent. And they will do their Due Diligence, or DD as CZ put it.
The aftermath as the dust settles
The most important part is people's crypto. This surely means that all is fine right, and people will be able to access their crypto again. There are a few caveats. The biggest one is that the LOT is non-binding. Meaning Binance can at any point simply say that the deal is off. The biggest reason for this would, as I see it, be if they find any dark secrets while doing their due diligence in the acquisition process.
The second wrinkle is that Binance has only offered to buy FTX.com, meaning that FTXus, and any other branches that might exist, are not included in the deal. This very much leaves these customers in limbo even more than the regular FTX customers. And their future is very much unclear.
The other big elephant in the room is of course the books of FTX. Was their tweet about having more than $10 billion available to them nothing more than a desperate attempt and a lie? Or where are those funds? Bankman also tweeted, in a now-deleted? tweet, that all client's assets are fine and that they don´t invest their client's assets. Was that even more lies? Well, the disappearance of the twitter feed would suggest so.
Will this mean that Bankman will face charges, if nothing else it appears that he lied to his investors with the now-deleted series of tweets about every client's assets being "safe".
Another question I have is just how little funds did actually FTX have. It is starting to more and more look like an air castle built from the smoke of a hopium pipe. Was FTX a scam all along, in the veins of Celsius? Where they were just trying to pump it and get as much money out as possible. Of where FTX in a "fake it till you make it" faze. Having liquidity problems all along and simply trying to put on a brave facade in the hopes that the crypto winter would pass.
*This also appears to confirm that Bankman lied in his previous tweets, as well as show that CZ is not the most gracious winner*
When the dust settles one thing is sure. This war has caused many casualties. And whether you are a diehard capitalist or socialist. Having no competition will most likely only hurt the customers in the long run. And it also looks like CZ just could not help himself and had to rub it in Bankmans face at the very end.
My biggest takeaway and I hope yours too
The biggest thing however I think now should be apparent to everyone. Whether you share caught in the crypto war or you were just on the sidelines. That is that big companies will always do what is best for them. No matter how many of us small people will get hurt in the process. Just look at how many people presumably have had their lives and lives savings destroyed all because two CEOs do not like each other.
Sure you can argue that ultimately this was a great business move made by CZ. And I would be right there with you. It sure looks like it was. Being able to kill off your biggest rival simply by moving some crypto around and saying you are going to sell it can not be called anything but a stroke of genius. Even if $FTT would have gone to 0. It would ultimately only have cost Binance the ~$580 million, and to me, that is a cheap price to pay to kill your biggest competitor. Especially is FTX was estimated to be worth billions.
But again, when giants fight it is the little people that get trampled on. And I think that not only will we the small people be left holding the bags on this one as well. We will most likely be worse off in the coming year or so. Until a competitor can emerge that can rival Binance. If that is something that CZ will allow to happen I mean. He might just kill them off as well if they grow too big.
To summarize, big companies are not your friends. No matter what they say. When push comes to shove they will always do what is best for business, no matter who gets hurt in the process. That is the one thing you can always count on. And in the majority of cases that means ordinary people like you and me.
Links to the tweets can be found in the resource section, they appear in the order shown.
I would love to hear your take on this whole crypto war, do you think it was all conducted in a good way? Or is there too little regard shown for the common people? As well as any other thoughts you have on this, am I wrong in my conclusions or do you agree with me? If you would like to support me and the content I make, please consider following me, reading my other posts, or why not do both instead.
See you on the interwebs!
Picture provided by: screengrabs from twitter, Binance Media
Resources
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/02/divisions-in-sam-bankman-frieds-crypto-empire-blur-on-his-trading-titan-alamedas-balance-sheet/
https://twitter.com/carolinecapital/status/1589287457975304193
https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1589703098762940416
https://twitter.com/carolinecapital/status/1589264375042707458
https://twitter.com/SBF_FTX/status/1590012124864348160
https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1590013613586411520
https://twitter.com/ChazzonKe/status/1590023557865959425
https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1590103159506341888
Want to get a handle on the recent events in the crypto war of 2022?
Look no further than my post here.
https://ecency.com/hive-167922/@daje10/binance-wins-the-crypto-war
What is your take on Binance basically killing off their biggest competitor FTS?
So FTX´s token FTT just took a gigantic nose dive... Hope you managed to heed my advice and take it all out before it super crashed.
The SEC having internal trouble, will this lead to an overhaul of the agency?
One would not be faulted for believing that the SEC is in turmoil. Its own staff is quitting at a pace not seen in 10 years. But why? Let us see if we can not find out why.
A letter from the Senat
The letter, dated Oct. 27, was signed by senators Thom Tillis (R-NC), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Tim Scott (R-SC), Michael Rounds (R-SD), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), and Steve Daines (R-MT). In it they want the SEC to explain why their staff is leaving the agency at a pace not seen in a decade.
The Republican Senators cited a public report published on October 13 by the Office of the Inspector General, the SEC’s own internal watchdog. In that report topic such as staff attrition and reported discontent among the staff is talked about. "The SEC employees interviewed for the report said they received little feedback on rules they had written, emphasizing their fear of an increased litigation due to shortened industry comment periods".
Efforts to ram through hurried rulemaking without proper analysis, deliberation or consideration of downstream negative impacts is nothing short of regulatory malpractice.
*SEC Chair Gary Gensler*
The senators want to know how Gary Gensler, SEC Chair, plans to address the issues raised in the report. The concerns raised by the employees and the issue of too little time given to the industry for feedback on rules. So far the SEC has introduced 26 new rules this year. A number that is more than double the previous year's number. And the highest number seen in five years. And we still have two months to go of this year.
There has been a lot of criticism levied against Gensler. Many believe he is just a power-hungry regulator. And do not agree with his regulation strategy of crypto. Not to mention his approach to lure companies' kin to "talk" and then hit them with enforcement actions. Something that has put a pin in the wheel of good-faith cooperation.
This looks to be the latest critic to be added to the pile of criticism levied against him. I would not be surprised to see Gensler at the very least be swapped out at the next Presidental election. I am assuming Biden will not run for a second term. But even under a second term for Biden. There is only so much criticism that can be piled up before a change is needed. Even if it is only a swapping of figureheads. But very possibly this can lead to an overhaul of the entire agency. As it is not painting a pretty picture for the current administration.
What is your thought on this? Do you think the SEC is in trouble and we will see an overhaul of the agency? Please sound off in the comments section down below. If you would like to support me and the content I make, please consider following me, reading my other posts, or why not do both instead.
See you on the interwebs!
Picture provided by: https://www.sec.gov/opa/Article/mediakit.html, https://www.pexels.com/
Noisers help me out here. How come there are posts I can not comment on? But others can. These are people I am following, so no randos.
Gods Unchained - Community Quest update! The event is halted and getting reworked
It looks like the GU team has listed to us the community. Now let us see how they will change the event.
https://ecency.com/hive-173286/@daje10/gods-unchained-community-quest-update
Gods Unchained - Community Quest update! The event is halted and getting reworked
This is a short post just to let you know that the community quest event is getting halted and reworked.
Community quest
It appears that there have been more than just me who thought it strange that you by and large ignore the vast majority of the community in an event. An event you on top of that had the b*lls to call a community event. But I guess there can always be a case made for the naming being done ironically. Either way, more players than me have made their thoughts on the event clear to the Gods Unchained team. And they have listened.
Earlier today the Discord user Eclipse, the GU community manager, posted on Discord to let the community know the event is halted and is being reworked. But judging from the name change from Community Quest to Community Contest. I would not hold my breath and expect any miracles. It will most likely be a whale/top player-focused event.
The good take away however here is that they are willing to listen to the community. In my book that is a very positive thing. And they also are prepared to act fast.
If you would like to support me and the content I make, please consider following me, reading my other posts, or why not do both instead.
See you on the interwebs!
Picture provided by: Gods Unchained Media
It is looking like FTX is transforming into Celsius 2.0. You can read more about it in my post over at Medium.
medium.com/@bo.daniel.jensen/warning-fts-is-transforming-into-celsius-2-0-b7b962fd8c5a
If you are a member on Medium, I would really appreciate a follow if you think my content is good enough!
Gods Unchained has just started its community quests. Here is the breakdown of the first one:
Quest 1: War of Aggression, November 7-11, Requirement: Only Cards that cost 5 Mana or less (all cards in your deck need to be 5 mana or lower in costs. I would skip cards with variable mana costs just to be sure. They probably only look at the base cost of a card and not the cost of when you play it)
Hope to see you at the gaming table. =)
I thought I would give you all a Fall in Sweden update. So far it is progressing like most years. It arrives later than it use to. And if you want to know exactly how far it has progressed. I would say it is right about in between the two apple trees outside my apartment.
Good Monday Noisers. I hope you will have a great week!!
SEC has started to investigate HEX, PulseChain and PulseX
You can read more about it in my latest post on Hive:
https://ecency.com/hive-173575/@daje10/sec-have-started-to-investigate
SEC have started to investigate HEX, PulseChain and PulseX
It is looking like Richard Heart might get what has long been overdue. The SEC has apparently started to issue subpoenas to influencers who have promoted one or more of the following; HEX, PulseChain, and PulseX.
SEC and their subpoena
The whole SEC investigation was brought to light by Swedish researcher Eric Wall who, on twitter, shares a letter from the SEC dated November 1st. Apparently, this has gotten the "Hexicans", and yes they call themselves that, all riled up and on the warpath. Calling it all just a hoax and fake. Siting things as misspelled words as sure evidence of the hoax. And on the other hand, they are informing their fellow Hexicans on how to use telegram with secret chats and auto-destruction timers on the messages.
The king himself has even given his marching orders to the troops. Something that only lends credence to the fact that the SEC subpoenas in fact is true and very much real. Or that even if they are fake, the SEC definitely need to investigate them.
If I had invested in a project and the founder of that project put out that tweet. Then I would definitely take a long hard think about how to get my money out of that project as fast as possible. But I guess each to their own. I do hope that the SEC will clamp down, and clamp down hard on the HEX scam. If you want to read up some more I can recommend the post about HEX from MintDice. https://www.publish0x.com/@MintDice
**Hex Cryptocurrency: The Ultimate Scam** https://www.publish0x.com/bitcoin-news-blog-bitcoin-dice-casino-news/hex-cryptocurrency-the-ultimate-scam-xvmrryl
What are your thoughts on this? Have you invested in HEX or one of the other mentioned projects? If so what are your thoughts on this? Is it a witch hunt or justified? Please sound off in the comment section down below. If you would like to support me and the content I make, please consider following me, reading my other posts, or why not do both instead.
See you on the interwebs!
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Resources
https://twitter.com/ercwl/status/1588890690486165505
https://twitter.com/RichardHeartWin/status/1588219611291570176
If the funder of a crypto project you had bought into was eating this. Would you still have confidence in that project?
Binance is getting ready to take a massive dump on FTX´s $FTT token. $580 million worth to be exact. Is this the start of an exchange war?
*IMPORTANT* Are you ready for the digitization of the economy and CBDCs to take over the world?
Depending on to what extent you have looked into CBDCs in the past. This post may hold a varying degree of new information for you. But I do think, and I am not saying this lightly, that watching the video might be one of the single most important things you can do to better understand the future we are heading toward.
Russell Brand talking CBDCs
I know, I know this might come as a shock. That I am saying watching one of his videos can be one of the most important things to do. And just to emphasize the point, I might add I am in no way shape, or form a Russell Brand fan. In fact, I am probably on the complete opposite side of things. I find him mostly annoying and not funny. Hopefully, that will highlight how much I find the video useful.
In short in the video, he covers the topic of CBDCs from mostly the UK's perspective, as they recently got a new Prime Minister, again. But CBDCs are a global pest so they are pretty much universal. He of course makes a little fun of statements as well along the way. But I found that I more or less agree with everything he is saying in this video. Which came as a gigantic shock, to me. I might have to give Russell a second chance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTOYJ4QCPnI
It is indeed a scary picture that is getting painted, sadly one that is looking like will become a reality in the near future. As I covered in a previous post, a total of 112 of the 195 countries in the world have or are looking into CBDCs. And it is looking like they will come whether we like it or not.
What are your thoughts after watching the video? Please sound off in the comments section down below. If you would like to support me and the content I make, please consider following me, reading my other posts, or why not do both instead.
See you on the interwebs!
Picture provided by: Screenshot from the video
Would you be able to pass this test to be able to give out financial advice as an influencer?
WHat are your thoughts on CBDCs, is it something you are thinking about? Personally, I am scared of what they represent. But I would like to hear your opinions on them. I have a post coming out later today on the topic so stay tuned also. =)
Got to try and stay ontop of my incoming mails on Listnerds. Do you have any tip om doing it so it feels less of a chore?
Apparently, all is fine with GALA no. So no need to worry...
Is this, finally, the death of the catchphrase "Not Financial Advice"?
As it turns out, simply saying these words, which have almost reached a mythical level in crypto, actually will not help you. Unless you're superstitious, then maybe they will help ease your mind a little. =)
Read all about it in my latest post here:
https://ecency.com/hive-167922/@daje10/is-this-finally-the-death-of-the-catchphrase-not-financial-advice
Hope you have a great sunday!
Is this, finally, the death of the catchphrase "Not Financial Advice"?
According to Australian and US digital asset lawyers, simply saying "not financial advice" might not do anything for you. Well other than probably annoy your viewers. As I assume they like me instantly think, "if it is not advice, wtf are you going on about then telling me how good it is?".
**An ironic twist**
If the crypto influencers would have abided by the most used catchphrase in crypto "do your own research". One that is equally hated by me I might add. They most likely would have realized that the "not financial advice" catchphrase, or whatever you want to call it. Actually do not save you from facing legal action. Despite what, I assume, many think.
According to both Australian and American lawyers, the phrase is pretty much useless in the eyes of the law. Hopefully, if the awareness of this spreads it will lead to way fewer tiktokers and whatnotters promoting sh\*tcoins simply because they waved a wad of cash in front of them. Personally, I think it is the pinnacle of parasitic behavior. One person using their own fans to get rich off of them. While most of the time the fans loos everything. Because they have invested in some rug pull pump and dump scam project, believing that the person they look up to would never in a million years mislead them.
In Australia, they have actually taken this one step further, in the right direction. There they require influencers to have a license in order to give out financial advice. How the application or test for this is done tho I can only imagine. Is it able to show three profitable investments? Or might there be a test that I imagine could go a little like this:
"Sir, yes, yes. Put your name there on the dotted line where it says 'name'... Ok, well an X will do. We know who you are, so it is all good. Now let's move on to the first question."
"Sir, I have the privilege of informing you that you now officially can make financial advice to plants and some select invertebrates like snails. Here is your license."
And while I will gladly joke about it. I do think something needs to be done that these societal parasites are held responsible for their actions. If that is having a regulatory body issuing a license, or simply having an annual Thunderdome. Sadly I do not have the answer to it. But the parasite influencer Thunderdome event is starting to sound pretty good to me.
The lawyers do however iterate that while legally the "not financial advice" might not have any meaning. It is still a good practice to inform the audience, as we tend to forget things from time to time.
What is your thought on the fact that the "not financial advice" actually is useless? Personally, it was very good to hear I thought. As I think it is one of the most annoying things in crypto. I mean if this is not financial advice what is it then, entertainment well if that is the case in 99/100 cases the content sucks then. Well, I would love to hear what you make of all of this. The comment section if yours.
If you would like to support me and the content I make, please consider following me, reading my other posts, or why not do both instead.
See you on the interwebs!
Picture provided by: [https://pixabay.com/](https://pixabay.com/)
GALA has had a bit of a mishap. But all apparently is fine, and they are doing well.
Read more about how GALA shot themself in the foot here: https://medium.com/@bo.daniel.jensen/gala-shoots-them-self-in-the-foot-in-order-to-prevent-greater-harm-bfcef2f9b5c2
It has a positive ending, sort of at least. I promise. =)
Doing my morning checkup on Hive through the Ecency portal. Looks like a handful of notifications, that's always nice.
I would appreciate a follow, and if you want a follow as well pleas comment with your username and I will be more then happy to follow. No need for you to follow back or anything like that. Always happy to follow good content creators. =)
Good morning Noisers! I hope that very one is having a great day!
Please share your plans with me in the comment section. My plan is to try and get a lot of writing done today. =)
GALA shoots them self in the foot, in order to prevent greater harm
The $GALA token took a nose dive yesterday and dropped nearly 30%. This was after reports started to circulate of a hack or possibly a rug pull. But it appears all is well, maybe.
What led up to the massive drop?
There was concern being raised after one address on the blockchain apparently minted $1 billion in $GALA tokens out of the blue. When this got flagged and brought to people's attention pNetwork, who is handling network infrastructure for several gaming tokens $GALA among them. Said that they were behind the minting of the tokens.
We noticed pGALA wasn’t to be considered safe anymore and coordinated the white hat attack to prevent pGALA from being maliciously exploited,” they said, suggesting that the new tokens were printed as a way to help pNetwork drain a faulty PancakeSwap pool.
All appears to now be "safe". Well, at least that billion-dollar hole has been plugged. And that I have to admit is a good thing. I have to admit I am a bit unsure of how to react to it. Because normally these sorts of things are just X get hacked, all money gone. But this looks to have been a white hat hack, done in a preemptive way.
People who have the old affected tokens will get new tokens airdropped to them in the coming days. So if you are affected know they will attempt to sort you out ASAP.
But what they literally had to do it, and not just talked with GALA and had the issue fixed. I don't know. But I guess the people who were able to buy up a lot of tokens on the cheap are happy. But the hodlers are left holding the bag here. So even on a good day, the little people in crypto seem to get stuck with the bill.
I can't help but think the timing of this is fairly ominous. GALA just launched their new game a few days ago. And now this lands in their lap, like a wet fart during starters at a three-course meal.
What is your thought on this white hat hack? Is it all good or do you think they should have handled it differently or was perhaps time of the essence? Please share your thoughts in the comment section down below. If you would like to support me and the content I make, please consider following me, reading my other posts, or why not do both instead.
See you on the interwebs!
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@Patch
