CHOPPY WATERS

More Chaos Hits the Crypto Markets as Binance Agrees to Buy FTX Exchange

The FTX exchange, helmed by 30-year-old liberal donor Sam Bankman-Fried, faced a liquidity crunch.

Earlier this summer, 30-year-old crypto wunderkind Sam Bankman-Fried looked like a hero after bailing out his struggling rivals. Now, his crypto exchange, FTX, apparently needs a lifeline itself. On Tuesday, Bankman-Fried announced that FTX had agreed to a “strategic transaction” with Binance, another crypto giant. “This afternoon, FTX asked for our help. There is a significant liquidity crunch,” Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao wrote on Twitter, adding that due-diligence has not yet been carried out and that the deal remains non-binding. Terms of the agreement, or what it will mean for Bankman-Fried’s estimated $16.6 billion fortune, were not immediately clear. Bankman-Fried has emerged as a major Democratic player in recent years. In May, he suggested he might spend $1 billion on campaign contributions through the 2024 elections, though he later reversed course. Tuesday’s announced deal seemingly did not include FTX’s U.S.-based business, which operates as a separate company.