Binance CEO CZ on FTX crash: “We’ve been set back a few years”
Crypto exchange FTX joined many other fallen projects — including Terra (LUNA), 3AC, Celsius and Voyager — in filing for bankruptcy in 2022. Owing to the devastation caused by multi-billion dollar losses suffered by businesses and investors, the man running the biggest crypto exchange, Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, envisions an era of greater regulatory scrutiny in the near future.
With one of the biggest crypto businesses falling overnight, CZ believed the episode was devastating for the industry, which took away a lot of consumer confidence. Speaking at Indonesia Fintech Summit 2022, he said:
Regulations in crypto historically circled around Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML). However, CZ reiterated his long-standing belief that regulations must focus on exchange operations, such as business models and proof of reserves. As a result, he believed that tighter regulatory scrutiny around crypto business operations is around the corner.
While FTX’s collapse is bound to have a short-term impact on retail investors, in the longer term, this is a wake-up call for discussions about how to handle risks across crypto ecosystems. Speaking specifically about FTX, he said:
CZ pointed out that the biggest red flag about FTX was Alameda Research’s financials, which were full of FTX Tokens (FTT) that made him finalize the decision to sell off Binance’s FTT holdings worth over $2 billion at the time.
The following day, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried reached out to CZ with a deal that “did not make sense from a number of fronts”. At the same time, CZ hoped to get an over-the-counter (OTC) deal for protecting users:
CZ believes that increasing transparency and educating regulatory agencies about crypto audits and cold
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