[Feature] The Timeline of FTX’s Withdrawal Halts & Binance’s Potential Acquisition of FTX

1. On the evening of November 8th, the last outgoing transaction from FTX on the Ethereum blockchain took place at 6:59 pm (UTC+8), according to transaction records in block explorer Etherscan. As for Solana, the last outgoing transaction from FTX was also around the same time. Steven Zheng, a research analyst at The Block, said, “it appears that FTX has stopped processing on-chain withdrawals from at least their main identified wallets on Ethereum, Solana and Tron".

2. Some users claim that FTX still supports withdrawal by the FTX address 0x7abe0ce388281d2acf297cb089caef3819b13448. However, Web3 data protocol 0xScope denies the claim as the said address was belong to FTX.US, which products and users are operated independently from FTX.

3. It was later figured out that the CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), deleted a tweet he posted on November 7^th saying, "FTX has enough to cover all client holdings. We don’t invest in client assets (even in treasuries). We have been processing all withdrawals, and will continue to be.” Some media believe this is likely in response to potential legal action.

4. According to Coinglass data, the number of Bitcoins on FTX has decreased by 19,941.64 in the past 24 hours, and the current holding is only 36.14 BTC; on the other hand, the number of Bitcoins on Binance has increased by 20,931.70 in the past 24 hours, and the current holding is 519,007.78 BTC.

5. On midnight of November 9th, the CEO of FTX, SBF, announced he had come to an agreement on a strategic transaction with Binance.

6. The CEO of Binance, CZ, replies within a few minutes following SBF’s tweet. Both parties signed a non-binding LOI, with Binance intending to fully acquire http://FTX.com and help cover the liquidity crunch.

7. The news is quickly pickup and immediately draws concerns. Professor Thibault Schrepel, the author of “Blockchain + Antitrust”, who specialises in blockchain and antitrust issues, suggests CZ check the compliance of his tweet with antitrust laws before posting, as Schrepel thinks the acquisition will break the law.

8. According to the publication of The Information, four FTX investors revealed that the fate of their holdings is still unknown, and they are still trying to figure out how they will be affected by the Binance deal. One of the investors said institutional investors worried that the value of the stake would be wiped out. In September, FTX was in talks with potential investors to raise $1 billion in new funding round. With the fresh funds, FTX’s valuation is at about $3B. According to informed sources, FTX has raised nearly $2 billion in funding, with Sequoia Capital and Paradigm among its biggest venture capital backers.