El Salvador doesn’t have any bitcoin holdings in FTX, Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao tweeted Thursday. “I exchanged messages with President Nayib a few moments ago. He said ‘we don’t have any Bitcoin in FTX and we never had any business with them. Thank God!'” FTX filed for bankruptcy on Friday, and Sam Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO. Loading Something is loading.
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Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said Thursday that the president of El Salvador told him the country did not hold any bitcoin on collapsing crypto exchange FTX.
“Man, the amount of misinformation is insane,” CZ tweeted. “I exchanged messages with President Nayib a few moments ago. He said ‘we don’t have any Bitcoin in FTX and we never had any business with them. Thank God!'”
—CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) November 10, 2022The misinformation CZ was citing stemmed from a CNBC interview with crypto billionaire Mike Novogratz.
“I read – I don’t know if it’s true – that the El Salvadoran government’s crypto was on FTX, and they’re calling for the extradition of Sam,” he said Thursday on Squawk Box.
He added that he remains bullish on bitcoin, even though some crypto firms will go under as the industry moves forward.
Novogratz apologized to Bukele on Twitter, and said he had fallen victim to “fake news.”
—Mike Novogratz (@novogratz) November 10, 2022FTX halted customer withdrawals earlier this week after about $5 billion worth of withdrawal requests came in on Sunday. The exchange then sought out potential rescuers amid a liquidity crunch.
But Binance walked away from a deal to acquire FTX, and no others stepped forward. On Friday, FTX and its affiliates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
El Salvador adopted bitcoin as legal tender in 2021 and touted plans for a bitcoin bond that have yet to come to fruition. Meanwhile, Bukele has been “buying the dip” in bitcoin as cryptocurrencies have been mired in a deep slump.
According to Bloomberg data, El Salvador’s bitcoin holdings have lost 60% of their value, with its 2,381 bitcoin now worth $41.5 million at current prices.
In January, Moody’s warned that El Salvador’s bitcoin buying spree would raise its credit risk, as the government has had liquidity issues in the past.