SBF accuses Binance of leaking Alameda Research balance sheet

The document presented during the trial against Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) in November 2022 shows that FTX founder viewed Binance as a main competitor and accused its leadership of leaking confidential information to the media. This is reported by The Block.

In particular, he attributed the leak of Alameda Research’s balance sheet to CoinDesk to the largest cryptocurrency exchange by market capitalisation.

On November 2, the publication, citing a ‘private document’, reported that FTX’s trading subsidiary was in a potentially precarious position, as most of its collateral consisted of the FTT token.

“[Binance] leaked the balance sheet, wrote about it in a blog post, handed it to CoinDesk, and then publicly announced that they were selling $500 million of FTT, while urging customers to fear FTX,” according to the SBF memo.

That sequence of events likely served as a catalyst for the collapse of FTX and Alameda, as, after the escalation of FUD, clients rushed to withdraw funds, and collateral was insufficient.

In the same document, SBF named Tron founder and HTX adviser Justin Sun as a potential investor, but left a note — “close to [Binance chief] Changpeng Zhao.”

SBF also stressed in the memo that FTX was “sufficiently capitalised, but not infinitely liquid.” However, the document carried a footnote stating that of the $12 billion in client funds available for withdrawal, only one third — $4 billion — was accessible.

Earlier, former Alameda programmer told how the firm lost at least $190 million due to lax security practices. Many employees at the company fell for phishing and fraud.

Earlier, former CEO Caroline Ellison testified in court. She said that SBF planned to become president, and also shared a list of things that irritated him.