Who hasn’t been hurt this crypto winter? Binance

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Hello everyone,

Hold onto your butts because this week is looking a little wilder than most.

We’re looking at another insolvency in the cryptosphere, but it involves a regulated US bank this time. While the immediate implication for the industry may be small, as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation insures US banks, the fallout from the closure of Silvergate bank will be huge for anyone looking to turn their crypto assets into cash. We’re going out on a limb to assume that includes everyone who owns assets.

Plus, there is also some surprising news about Babel Finance (restructuring), Voyager (sold!), and Binance (says it didn’t break any laws).

To start, we have some very unsurprising news. We decided to look at which centralized exchange did the best over the last year, and the answer is: Binance. Surprised? Probably not, but wait until you see the numbers – the focus of this week’s Deep Dive.

— Scott

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🤿 THE DEEP DIVE

Binance’s dominance grows in FTX’s absence

When FTX exploded, I got into an argument – with a lot of people – over the role that Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao played in the former’s demise.

I don’t believe that Zhao or anyone at Binance had anything to do with FTX’s financial situation – that toxic mess was the doing of Sam Bankman-Fried and his team. But the speed at which FTX’s operations went pear-shaped is directly attributable to a tweet from Zhao, where he announced Binance was dumping its FTT holdings.

At the time, I thought the announcement was a ploy to weaken FTX before Binance stepped in to “rescue” them – in other words, a blatant grab for market share. I argued that if Binance just wanted out, it should have done so quietly and slowly. The announcement all but guaranteed a massive sell-off in FTT and a drop in its price.

I wasn’t wrong: Binance offered FTX a bailout a few weeks later but then pulled out of the deal after looking at the latter’s books. That announcement was the first indication that something was truly, tragically, and perhaps criminally wrong at FTX.

Regardless of the way the FTX played out, Binance got what it wanted: market share. It was the dominant centralized exchange before the crypto winter, and it’s even stronger now. Our deep dive this week looks at just how much Binance has grown in the absence of FTX.

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👀 ALL EYES ON…

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⭐ TO THE STARS

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MORE TO CHEW ON

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