FTX’s FTT Token Crashes 78% in 24 Hours, Bitcoin Hits Yearly Low

FTT is hemorrhaging value, crashing 78% in the past 24 hours from roughly $22 to $4.87, according to data from CoinGecko.

The FTX token reached a low of $3.12 Tuesday before rising slightly to above four dollars and then back to roughly $5.48 at time of writing. FTT is down nearly 93% from its all-time high of $84 in September of last year.

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, isn’t doing too well either. BTC is down nearly 10% in the past day, hitting a new yearly low of $17,579, per CoinGecko data.

BTC has fallen 73% from its all-time high of just over $69,000 in November 2021. BTC previously fell below the $18,000 mark earlier this year, slipping to $17,772 back in June.

The plummeting price of FTT comes as both Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao and FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried confirmed Tuesday that Binance would acquire FTX as the latter faced a “significant liquidity crunch.” 

Just days ago, CZ shared that he was selling all of Binance’s holdings of FTT, worth at least $500 million. 

“Due to recent revelations that have came to light, we have decided to liquidate any remaining FTT on our books,” CZ said Sunday, without disclosing exactly what the “revelations” were.

“We will try to do so in a way that minimizes market impact. Due to market conditions and limited liquidity, we expect this will take a few months to complete,” he added.

Despite CZ’s expressed desire to minimize the impact of Binance’s FTT selloff, it’s still likely this initial announcement affected the price action of FTT. CZ denies causing any of FTX’s financial turmoil.

“There were also conspiracy theories that I somehow orchestrated this whole thing,” he wrote on Twitter Monday of FTX’s recent troubles. “If you read this thread, you would appreciate that no one can orchestrate this.”

CZ later provided a bit more context on why Binance was selling its FTT, calling it “post-exit risk management.” 

He also said that he “won’t support people who lobby against other industry players behind their backs.” Such a statement could be a reference to Bankman-Fried, who is known for being a crypto advocate in Washington D.C. SBF’s Alameda Research donated $6.2 million to Biden’s prior campaign, and FTX.US donated $5.2 million.

It’s worth noting that Binance and FTX’s U.S. counterparts do not yet appear to be involved in the acquisition deal as Binance plans to take on FTX’s international arm.