In his newly released memoir, Freedom of Money, Binance founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao provides a stark, behind-the-scenes account of the final days leading to the collapse of the FTX exchange in November 2022. Zhao reveals that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) reached out with an urgent request for an emergency bailout of up to $6 billion just days before the platform's historic implosion.
The request was delivered with a jarring lack of gravity, with Zhao describing Bankman-Fried's tone as being "as casual as asking for a ham sandwich." This detail, reiterated by Zhao in a subsequent Fox Business interview on April 14, 2026, highlights the profound disconnect between the leaders of the two largest exchanges at the time. CZ directly tied this casual plea to a broader pattern of deception and hidden debts that created a massive capital shortfall at FTX.
The memoir also dissects the internal workings of an "Exchange Collaboration" Signal group that included executives from Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken. Formed initially to coordinate responses to the Terra/LUNA collapse, the group became a front-row seat to FTX's unraveling. Zhao identifies a public statement by Caroline Ellison, former head of Alameda Research, as the "fatal mistake" that sealed FTX's fate.
By publicly offering to buy back FTT tokens at $22 to stabilize the market, Ellison effectively revealed the "bottom buying price" to professional short-sellers. This transparency allowed traders to overwhelm the support level, causing the token to crash to $5 and triggering a 72-hour bank run that saw $6 billion withdrawn from FTX.
Zhao emphasizes that while Binance signed a non-binding letter of intent to acquire its rival, he had "zero desire" to own the firm, viewing the audit process as a necessary step to protect the broader crypto ecosystem from systemic contagion.
Beyond the FTX drama, Zhao's narrative documents Binance's own resilience during a massive $7 billion withdrawal event on December 14, 2022. He credits the platform's ability to process every redemption without delay to its adherence to one-to-one reserves, serving as a testament to the importance of "Proof of Reserves" in a post-FTX world. The memoir positions itself as the definitive account of how the industry survived its most chaotic period to emerge as a more regulated and institutionalized asset class.
