How Binance, FTX deal rocked the Crypto world and later collapsed

business-standard.com:

It’s been a tumultuous few days in the largely unregulated cryptocurrency world, with mudslinging on Twitter, a shock exchange takeover bid — which then collapsed — and plunging token values.

On Tuesday, the world’s biggest exchange, Binance Holdings Ltd., was set to acquire troubled rival FTX.com. On Wednesday, Binance walked away from the deal citing problems with FTX’s finances as well as potential regulatory investigations. Its decision to walk away deepened the ongoing crypto rout, with Bitcoin tumbling to the lowest level in two years.

While crypto might seem like a niche corner of finance, the saga between two of its top players has upended the crypto ecosystem and is likely to have far-reaching repercussions.

What are Binance and FTX?

They’re two of the biggest crypto exchanges, which are marketplaces where investors buy, sell and store tokens. Binance is the biggest crypto exchange by volume by a long way — and FTX is in the top five, according to crypto data provider CoinMarketCap (which is owned by Binance).

Who runs them?

They’ve also been led by two of the most visible and charismatic people in the crypto world: Binance by Changpeng Zhao (or CZ, as he is known), and FTX by Sam Bankman-Fried (or SBF).

Formerly a trader at Jane Street, until just a few weeks ago the curly-haired 30-year-old was everywhere in the crypto industry — backing flailing projects including BlockFi, Voyager Digital and Celsius. He counted the likes of Softbank Vision Fund, Singapore wealth fund Temasek and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan as investors.

Zhao is a China-born Canadian citizen who emigrated to Vancouver aged 12 and graduated with a degree in computer science from McGill University in Montreal. He started Binance in 2017 in