FTT, SOL, APT tank over FTX insolvency woes

The “crypto feud” between Changpeng ‘ Zhao (CZ) and Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) took a turn for the worse on Nov. 8 — culminating in the biggest bull trap in recent memory.

Since Nov, 6, when CZ tweeted Binance’s intentions to offload its holdings of FTT tokens, $152.6 billion has left the crypto market resulting in huge drawdowns in token prices.

The tweet raised questions about FTX’s solvency, which, given its standing and willingness to save Terra LUNA bankrupted CeFi platforms, presented a somewhat implausible scenario.

UpOnly TV host Cobie commented that the speed at which the situation developed caught out many “long-term and smart crypto ppl” who were none the wiser regarding what was happening behind the scenes at FTX.

“In my decade of crypto, think this exchange rug is by far the worst ever. Almost no time to react and lots of long-term and smart crypto ppl impacted by it.“

Scale of FTX blackhole unknown at this time

On Nov. 8, CZ tweeted that FTX had reached out to Binance for help and a non-binding agreement was made to buy the company, subject to satisfactory due diligence.

This afternoon, FTX asked for our help. There is a significant liquidity crunch. To protect users, we signed a non-binding LOI, intending to fully acquire https://t.co/BGtFlCmLXB and help cover the liquidity crunch. We will be conducting a full DD in the coming days.

— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) November 8, 2022

Before that point, SBF had publically maintained everything was fine. Although on-chain data showed a “bank run” on holdings, many assumed FTX was sufficiently liquid.

According to Wall Street Journal reporter Liz Hoffman, before the agreement with Binance was struck, SBF was asking Silicon Valley and Wall Street billionaires for help.

This a.m. before securing an emergency lifeline from rival Binance, FTX was canvassing deep pockets in Silicon Valley and Wall St — think billionaires, not institutions — ppl familiar told me & @lmatsakis @SaacksAttack. Two of the ppl he he was seeking more than $1bn.

— Liz Hoffman (@lizrhoffman) November 8, 2022

Currently, other than general comments on insolvency and irresponsible investment strategies, the full details of FTX’s woes are not known.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, when asked if his exchange would buy FTX, said:

“There [are] reasons why that would not make sense.”

Armstrong added:

“[I am] not quite at liberty to share the details right now.”

Biggest losers

Over the last 24 hours, out of the top 100, FTX’s native FTT token fared the worst, down 74% to bottom at $2.76. In comparison, FTT started the day at $22.23.

Next, Solana lost 35% of its value over the same period. Support was found at $17.56 in the morning (GMT) of Nov. 9.

Twitter user @immortalcrypto commented that sell pressure was coming from FTX’s investment arm Alameda offloading its Solana holdings to defend the FTT price.

Alameda selling $SOL to buy $FTT because CZ is selling $FTT to buy $BNB.

If next bullmarket someone calls me lucky I’m going to cut his tongue out.

— Inmortal (@inmortalcrypto) November 8, 2022

Aptos fell 30% over the last 24 hours to bottom at $4.34 earlier this morning. APT launched on Oct. 19 and was immediately criticized for its poor scalability on launch, token distribution favoring VCs, and ties to Meta.

In July, the project raised $150 million in a series A funding round led by FTX Ventures, with Andreessen Horowitz, Multicoin Capital, and Circle Ventures participating.