Former FTX celebrity spokesman Kevin O’Leary says he believes the bankrupt crypto exchange was toppled on purpose by China-based rival Binance, based on claims made by ousted FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and the actions of Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao.
O’Leary, an investor and “Shark Tank” star, made the assertion Wednesday while testifying before the Senate Banking Committee when asked his opinion on why FTX failed.
“In my view, my personal opinion, these two behemoths that own the unregulated market together and grew these incredible businesses in terms of growing were at war with each other, and one put the other out of business intentionally,” O’Leary said.
“Now, maybe there’s nothing wrong with that – maybe there’s nothing wrong with love and war,” he continued. “But Binance is a massive, unregulated global monopoly now. They put FTX out of business – now, lots of other reasons, I’m sure. But that’s my personal opinion.”
O’Leary recalled Bankman-Fried telling him shortly after FTX collapsed that the exchange spent as much as $3 billion to repurchase Binance’s purported 20% share of his firm because Zhao allegedly refused to comply with regulatory requests from different jurisdictions, thereby prohibiting FTX from being cleared for licenses. The move, he said, “stripped the balance sheet of assets.”
O’Leary also pointed to Zhao’s actions on Nov. 6 when the CEO announced via Twitter that Binance was liquidating all the remaining FTT tokens on its books, which is a proprietary token of FTX. The “Shark Tank” investor said Zhao knew that move was going to “push down the value of that coin dramatically” and “that’s exactly what happened.”
Zhao said in the same tweet thread at the time, “Regarding any speculation as to whether this is a move against a competitor, it is not.”
Bankman-Fried, arrested Monday and currently jailed in the Bahamas on several charges related to FTX’s collapse, has also blamed Binance for his firm’s demise. O’Leary echoed several claims Bankman-Fried made in his pre-written testimony to Congress, which was obtained and published by Forbes but never delivered by the FTX founder due to his incarceration hours before the hearing.
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Binance did not immediately respond to FOX Business‘ request for a reaction to O’Leary’s remarks.