As became known from the disclosed bankrupt crypto broker Voyager report, Alameda Research, a crypto trading company owned by the head of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, owes Voyager about $377 million. As it turns out, Alameda is the second largest borrower of the bankrupt crypto broker, while the first is crypto venture fund Three Arrows Capital, which owes Voyager $654 million and is going through a liquidation process itself.
New details about Voyager's bankruptcy and its finances have raised a lot of questions and speculation from the crypto community—especially against the backdrop of SBF's own claims that it and FTX have several billion to support crypto firms, which could further destabilize the digital assets industry, like BlockFi or Celsius.
For his part, the head of another major cryptocurrency exchange, Binance—Changpeng Zhao or simply CZ—commented on the information, calling it an interesting twist and adding a cryptic ellipsis. When CZ was asked about the state of affairs of Binance itself, the entrepreneur was quick to reassure that the exchange is independent and sustainable, noting that Binance owes no debts.
Interesting twist...
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) July 7, 2022Advertisement
In addition, responding to a question related to the cancelation of commissions on Bitcoin trading pairs on Binance, CZ said that the exchange probably has the largest reserve of liquidity in the industry, and the abolition of BTC commissions is just a gesture of goodwill in difficult times.
Is fight for influence over crypto market possible?
Though it is hard to understand what intonation CZ used in his comment about bankrupted Voyager, it seems obvious that in the near future, we will have a serious "cold war” for influence over the cryptocurrency market and its users. The market is consolidating, and its weak players are directly or indirectly being absorbed by strong ones. The main sides of this battle seem to already be defined.
Godfrey Benjamin
Arman Shirinyan
Vladislav Sopov
Dan Burgin