FTX Reaches Deal With Binance Amid Liquidity Scare, Sam Bankman-Fried Says

Binance agreed to buy FTX amid a panic that caused concern FTX’s cryptocurrency exchange might not survive.

«Things have come full circle, and FTX.com’s first, and last, investors are the same: we have come to an agreement on a strategic transaction with Binance for FTX.com (pending DD etc.),» FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried tweeted Tuesday.

Binance CEO Changpeng «CZ» Zhao also took to Twitter to confirm the deal, saying the two exchange giants signed a non-binding letter of intent. Bankman-Fried and Zhao both said that a full due diligence process would be underway in the next couple of days.

The deal comes in the wake of a CoinDesk scoop last week that triggered concern that the balance sheet of FTX’s corporate sibling, Alameda Research, was too heavily reliant on illiquid tokens including FTX’s own FTT.

On the news, FTX’s FTT token rallied 20% to $17.50 from about $14.50. Binance’s BNB token jumped 8% from $326 to $355.

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