CZ Opens Up: Never Seriously Considered Acquiring FTX, Not Very Interested in Helping SBF

April 8th, CoinDesk reported that Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) said in his autobiography *Freedom of Money* that during a pre-acquisition call with Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) in November 2022, SBF casually asked for "tens of billions of dollars—like ordering a bologna sandwich"—and never planned to follow through on the FTX deal from the start. CZ wrote: "Neither was I interested in acquiring FTX nor in helping SBF, but we might have needed to act to protect users and the industry." He clarified signing the non-binding letter of intent (LOI) was merely a formality: "I made clear we wouldn’t make binding commitments; our team was just assessing data before deciding." On FTX’s collapse, CZ identified a fatal misstep by Alameda’s former CEO Caroline Ellison as the turning point. When Ellison publicly offered to repurchase Binance’s FTT holdings at $22 per token (to stabilize the market), she "essentially exposed a price floor." Pro traders immediately shorted FTT below that level, and roughly $6 billion drained from FTX within 72 hours. CZ also disclosed a Signal group named "Exchange Collaboration"—founded by former FTX institutional sales head Zane Tackett during that year’s Terra (LUNA) crash—with members including CZ, SBF, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Kraken co-founder Jesse Powell, and other exchange executives. The group drew scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), but CZ stated: "They were eager for proof of exchange collusion or market manipulation, but no such activity occurred."