By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- Binance has agreed in principle to buy the non-U.S. operations of cryptocurrency platform FTX, founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao said Tuesday.
The news caps a mind-bending series of twists and turns over the last week, which came to a head when Binance - one of FTX's original backers - triggered a run on FTX's deposit base by pulling its own funds.
"This afternoon, FTX asked for our help," Zhao tweeted, a couple of hours after FTX had reportedly been forced to suspend client withdrawals, sparking fears of a repeat of Celsius Network's collapse earlier in the year.
"There is a significant liquidity crunch," Zhao added. "To protect users, we signed a non-binding LOI (letter of intent), intending to fully acquire http://FTX.com and help cover the liquidity crunch."
He added that the acquisition will be subject to "a full" due diligence process.
Bankman-Fried confirmed agreement of "a strategic transaction" at the same time via Twitter, but omitted to mention anything about FTX.com being bought.