Binance’s FTX.com Acquisition Plunges Market Into Chaos

Key Takeaways

• Binance's planned acquisition of FTX has sent markets into turmoil.
• Tokens backed by FTX and Alameda Research and suffering acutely from the news, especially FTT, which is down about 80% at the time of writing.
• The news has sparked fears of contagion, the potential extent of which is still unknown.

The crypto market is coming to grips with the prospect that FTX being acquired by Binance could mean that Sam Bankman-Fried’s exchange and its close collaborator, Alameda Research, are potentially insolvent.

FTT Plummeting

The market is tanking following the recent news of Binance’s acquisition of FTX.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BitfinexUSD) is down 10.85% and trading for roughly $18,300, meaning the top cryptocurrency is currently at the same price level as it was at the beginning of the summer; it has already threatened to break the range to the downside. ETH/USD, meanwhile, has plunged 15.37% and is trading for $1,320.

The brutal price action is due to FTX’s recent admission that the exchange was experiencing a liquidity crunch: the insolvency was so severe that Sam Bankman-Fried, the company’s CEO, accepted selling FTX to rival cryptocurrency exchange Binance for an undisclosed amount.

While the acquisition is certainly good news for FTX users fearing having their funds frozen on the exchange, the revelation implies that FTX and quantitative trading firm Alameda Research (also founded by Bankman-Fried) are unlikely to meet their debt obligations should their creditors recall their loans.

This has caused some crypto tokens associated with FTX and Alameda to nosedive, with FTT (FTX’s native token) being first among them. The coin is down 80% at the time of writing and trading at $4.5: a drastic drop considering Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison promised to help Binance unload its FTT stash for $22 only two days ago. Solana and other major Solana-based tokens, such as SRM, are down 21% and 25%, respectively, having been heavily backed by Bankman-Fried up until now.

Meanwhile, Binance’s own stablecoin, BUSD/USD, has surged to trade at $1.01 despite being designed always to maintain a 1:1 parity with the U.S. dollar. BNB, Binance’s native token, is also performing well considering the circumstances, as it is only down 6.8%. The coin previously pumped 24% on the news that Binance was acquiring FTX.

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