Last Updated on April 21, 2023 by Bitfinsider

Before Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange FTX failed, Sam Bankman-Fried constantly disseminated untrue or racist stories about Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, claims Binance Chief Strategy Officer Patrick Hillman.

“Sam was CONSTANTLY spreading fake rumors about @cz_binance, because shading him as an ‘evil Chinese’ was critical to his scam. You can’t pretend to be Luke Skywalker without Darth Vader,” Hillman tweeted late on April 20.

Hillman was referring to a fresh story of FTX’s demise that was authored by Anthony Scaramucci of the hedge fund Skybridge Capital and appeared in Puck magazine. According to the narrative, SBF paid $45 million for a share in Skybridge, and Scaramucci spent $10 million of that sum in FTT, the native token of the defunct exchange. When FTX failed in November, that investment was all but useless.

SBF was “bad-mouthing” CZ during those discussions, as well as during their combined excursions to the Middle East in search of investments in Dubai, according to Puck.

CZ and SBF have long been rivals personally. When FTX was having issues but was still in operation, Binance once offered to buy it out for $1 billion. But after conducting due diligence on the company, Binance withdrew from the agreement the following day. At the time, Binance stated that “the issues are beyond our control or ability to help.”

A few hours later, FTX filed for bankruptcy.

Prior to that, CZ accused SBF of attempting to “depeg” tether, a stablecoin also known as USDT whose value is correlated to the U.S. dollar, in a Signal group chat.

On November 10, CZ leveled the charge following its withdrawal from the FTX rescue. “Stop trying to depeg stablecoins. And stop doing anything. Stop now, don’t cause more damage,” CZ reportedly ordered SBF.

Alameda Research, the sibling hedge fund of FTX, has in fact only lately sold $250,000 worth of tether. For the USDT to fall below its $1 peg, the amount was insufficient on its own. However, if trading was little, the trade might have been sufficient to instill anxiety in the market.

“My honest advice: stop doing everything. Put on a suit, and go back to DC, and start to answer questions,”  CZ allegedly instructed SBF. SBF denied attempting to depeg tether.

“Thanks for the advice!” SBF said on Signal, “Did you attempt to accuse me of trying to depeg a stablecoin by doing a $250,000 trade?”

On Twitter, Hillman further refuted claims that Binance withdrew from the rescue agreement or sold its FTT assets as a result of the hostility between SBF and CZ. He remarked, “Sam insulting CZ was the standard for us. Had nothing to do with the business’s decision to record the sale of the worthless FTT.