Binance Takeover Claim Recycles CZ's 2022 FTX Announcement

An X post claiming a rescue acquisition of Binance on Oct. 29 reproduces Changpeng Zhao's 2022 announcement of a proposed FTX takeover, substituting Binance for FTX.

The post came from @0xRacist, an account using the display name Tony, at 4:46 p.m. ET. It claimed, “Binance asked for our help,” and said “we signed a non-binding LOI,” or letter of intent. It identifies no corporate buyer and supplies no deal document; its only link points to Binance's homepage.

In Zhao's Nov. 8, 2022 post, the opening sentence was: “This afternoon, FTX asked for our help.” The acquisition message is otherwise identical apart from the exchange name and link. Zhao was Binance's CEO at the time. Binance abandoned that proposed FTX acquisition the following day.

Binance's announcements page contained no takeover statement when reviewed at about 4:50 p.m. ET. Its standing proof-of-reserves page says “Binance holds all user assets 1:1, including reserves.” That disclosure is not a response to the acquisition claim.

$BNB Drops 9% Over 24 Hours

$BNB was down 9.03% over 24 hours, compared with Bitcoin's 3.10% decline, according to CoinGecko data updated at 4:48 p.m. ET. Those daily returns do not isolate trading after the post or establish a cause for the decline.

DefiLlama's exchange-reserves dashboard showed $266.5 million in net outflows from tracked Binance wallets over 24 hours, alongside about $144.4 billion in assets. The outflows were equivalent to about 0.18% of those tracked assets, according to The Defiant's calculation.

The seven-day picture was positive, with $345.1 million in net inflows. These measures cover tracked wallet assets and flows, not a full accounting of Binance's liabilities, and do not establish a liquidity shortfall.