Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, has been spending his time at the Abu Dhabi Finance Week allaying fears around crypto as well as outlining the events that led to the eventual downfall of FTX. He explained that he did not expect Sam Bankman-Fried, head of rival FTX,  to phone him to tell the firm had become insolvent amid the collapse of his $16 billion business. 

Zhao posted on Twitter the reasons why Binance unloaded its holdings of the FTT digital tokens which triggered the whirlwind downfall of FTX. He explained his reasons why, including the nature of Mr Bankman-Fried’s antagonistic attitude to his rival’s company. He said he tweeted for the sake of “transparency”.

Zhao also used his time at the event to announce a crypto industry recovery fund. Adding that “we want the strong industry players today to protect the good industry players who might just be hurt short term.”