By Hannah Lang
(Reuters) -Binance Chief Executive Changpeng Zhao said on Tuesday the company had signed a non-binding agreement to buy rival FTX’s unit, FTX.com, to help cover a “liquidity crunch” at the cryptocurrency exchange.
FTX has come under pressure after Changpeng Zhao, head of rival exchange Binance – the world’s largest – said on Sunday his firm would liquidate its holdings of the FTX token, FTT, due to unspecified “recent revelations”.
“This afternoon, FTX asked for our help. There is a significant liquidity crunch. To protect users, we signed a non-binding LOI, intending to fully acquire FTX.com and help cover the liquidity crunch,” said Zhao in a tweet, noting that Binance has the discretion to pull out from the deal at any time.
In a tweet, Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX founder and CEO said that teams are working on clearing out the current backlog of withdrawals and that all assets will be covered 1:1.
(Reporting by Hannah Lang in Washington and Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Chizu Nomiyama)
