Binance will be selling its entire FTT token holdings

Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao announced on Twitter that the exchange will be liquidating its entire FTT token holdings. Zhao said Binance was given roughly $2.1 billion worth of BUSD and FTT as part of its exit from FTX equity last year, however, due to “recent revelations that have came to light” the company has decided to liquidate all remaining FTT token holdings from its books.

As part of Binance’s exit from FTX equity last year, Binance received roughly $2.1 billion USD equivalent in cash (BUSD and FTT). Due to recent revelations that have came to light, we have decided to liquidate any remaining FTT on our books. 1/4
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) November 6, 2022

Changpeng Zhao, also stated the actions will be undertaken in a way that will minimize market impact, however, he also acknowledged the limited liquidity on the market. Apparently, liquidating the entire Binance FTT token holdings will take months due to the current market conditions, and there were no details shared on the exact size of Binance’s FTT position.

To remove any doubts and speculations regarding this being a “move against a competitor”, Zhao stated that since the whole industry is still in its infancy, each time a project fails publicly it hurts the whole field.

It seems that, the “recent revelations” mentioned by Zhao as the reason for closing Binance’s FTT position are connected to a balance sheet from Alameda Research (also owned by FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried) alleging that billions worth of its assets are tied in FTX’s FTT token. Yet, Caroline Ellison formerly co-CEO of Alameda Research and now sole head of the company, stated in a tweet that the balance sheet speculations that have been circulating do not reflect the entire situation. According to her, although the document breaks out a few of the Alameda Research’s biggest long positions, there are over $10 billion worth of assets that are not reflected on it.

A few notes on the balance sheet info that has been circulating recently:
- that specific balance sheet is for a subset of our corporate entities, we have > $10b of assets that aren’t reflected there
— Caroline (@carolinecapital) November 6, 2022

Later, Sam Bankman-Fried also posted a message on Twitter stating his appreciation to supporters and claiming that there has been “a bunch of unfounded rumors” sharing Caroline Ellison’s aforementioned tweet.

1) A huge thank you to everyone who has supported us--we're excited to keep climbing together.

And especially to those who stay level headed during crazy times. We deeply appreciate it.
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 6, 2022