FTX’s Slide From a $32 Billion Valuation to Needing an Emergency Lifeline
At 4:00 p.m. (ET) on Nov. 9, 2022, the world’s largest crypto asset exchange by trade volume announced it would be backing out of purchasing FTX. This was after Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) told the public Binance would acquire FTX and help the rival exchange with a liquidity crunch.
FTX was a top cryptocurrency exchange and the Bahamas-based firm was co-founded in 2019 by Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang. During the last two years, FTX managed to be a front-running exchange positioned in the top five and sometimes the top three crypto trading platforms by global trade volume.