Sam Bankman-Fried, CZ Battle It Out on Twitter Over Binance's Aborted FTX Buyout

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is embroiled in a war of words with Binance CEO Changpeng 'CZ' Zhao on social media, with the pair squabbling over a botched acquisition last month.

"You won, there's no need to lie" Bankman-Fried remarked on Twitter after CZ labeled him as a "fraudster" in an earlier tweet.

You won, @cz_binance.

There's no need to lie, now, about the buyout.

We initiated conversations around buying you out, and we decided to do it because it was important for our business.

And while I was frustrated with your 'negotiation' tactics, I chose to still do it.

— SBF (@SBF_FTX) December 9, 2022

The dispute stems from Binance's attempted acquisition of FTX after Bankman-Fried's exchange halted withdrawals in November. After a CoinDesk article revealed an uncomfortably close relationship between FTX and sister trading firm Alameda Research, FTX agreed to sell itself to Binance, only for Binance to walk away from the deal one day later.

CZ claimed that Bankman-Fried became "unhinged" and that he launched a series of offensive tirades after after Binance pulled out of the deal.

The former FTX CEO replied: "You threatened to walk at the last minute if we didn't kick in an extra $75m. We did it anyway because this just made us feel more confident... But again, none of this is necessary. You won. Why are you lying about this now?"

Following Binance's decision to pull out of the acquisition, FTX filed for bankruptcy with billions of dollars of client funds being lost, and Bankman-Fried resigned after what is considered a Lehman Brothers moment for the crypto industry.