Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) says Sam Bankman‑Fried casually asked him for "a couple of billion dollars nonchalantly, as if he were asking for a bologna sandwich" during the phone call that set the stage for Binance's short‑lived attempt to acquire FTX in November 2022. The anecdote appears in Zhao’s new memoir, Freedom of Money, released Tuesday.
Zhao writes that he never intended to buy FTX or make a long‑term commitment to rescue SBF. He signed a non‑binding Letter of Intent only as a formality, motivated by a desire to "protect the users and the industry." "I was explicit that we were not making any commitment," Zhao says. "Our team would simply assess the numbers and then decide."
According to Zhao, the collapse pivoted on a public move by Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, who offered to buy Binance’s FTT holdings at $22 each in an apparent effort to shore up the token’s price. Zhao calls that offer "a fatal mistake" because it revealed a floor price that professional traders immediately targeted. FTT plunged from $22 to $15, then $10, then $5, and within 72 hours roughly $6 billion had exited FTX.
Zhao also lifts the curtain on "Exchange Collaboration," a Signal group created earlier in 2022 by FTX staffer Zane Tackett amid the Terra/LUNA implosion. The chat included senior exchange executives — Zhao, Bankman‑Fried, Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong, Kraken’s Jesse Powell and others — and later attracted attention from DOJ and SEC investigators. Zhao insists the group’s members were not colluding: "They were keen to find any possible hint of collusion or market manipulation between the exchanges. Of course there was no such thing in this case."
By Nov. 9, Zhao says Binance had walked away from the deal. Binance’s own FTT holdings — valued at about $580 million at their peak — were rendered "basically worthless," a blow Zhao likens to the company’s roughly $1.6 billion LUNA exposure six months earlier.
The fallout sparked a massive withdrawal surge on Binance as market turmoil spread. On Dec. 14, the platform reportedly saw $7 billion withdrawn in a single day. Zhao recounts spending that evening at dinner with friends and not being worried: "All user funds were in our reserves." He notes that within a month — as confidence returned — users had deposited the withdrawn funds back and then some.
The memoir provides Zhao’s firsthand account of the frantic days around FTX’s demise, the damage to token markets like FTT, and the broader regulatory scrutiny that followed exchanges’ emergency communications during a volatile year for crypto.
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