Binance has agreed to buy cryptocurrency rival FTX.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao tweeted on Tuesday that his company had signed a letter of intent to acquire FTX, with due diligence to occur “in coming days.”
Zhao said “there is a significant liquidity crunch,” adding that the deal was necessary to “protect users.”
“Things have come full circle, and FTX.com’s first, and last, investors are the same,” FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said in a separate tweet. “We have come to an agreement on a strategic transaction with Binance for FTX.com.”
“Our teams are working on clearing out the withdrawal backlog as is,” Bankman-Fried added. “This will clear out liquidity crunches; all assets will be covered 1:1. This is one of the main reasons we’ve asked Binance to come in. It may take a bit to settle … we apologize for that.”