Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall

by Zeke Faux

concern. He announced on November 6 that because of “recent revelations,” Binance would be selling off its stash of FTT tokens, which it had acquired due to its early investment in Bankman-Fried’s company. “We won’t pretend to make love after divorce,” he wrote on Twitter. “We won’t support people who lobby against other industry players behind their backs.” Other investors piled on, dumping their FTT tokens and withdrawing their money from Bankman-Fried’s exchange. Rumors flew that FTX might not have enough money to cover users’ deposits. The withdrawals—some of which were publicly trackable on the blockchain—accelerated like a snowball. The more money was pulled, the more other investors decided it might be a good idea to withdraw theirs too. It was a case of reverse FOMO. It wasn’t so much that investors were sure FTX was in trouble. It was more that they figured they might as well pull their money in case CZ was right. They’d seen what happened to investors who left their money at Celsius or the other crypto firms that failed. Bankman-Fried took to Twitter to try and stem the withdrawals. “FTX is fine,” he posted, a bit feebly. “Assets are fine. We don’t invest client assets (even in treasuries).”