Coinbase, this second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by spot trading volume with over 108 million users, claimed on a Tuesday blog post that it had “no exposure” to FTX’s token FTT, no loans to FTX, no exposure to FTX’s sister company Alameda Research, and the only tie to FTX was a US$15 million deposit on the cryptocurrency exchange.
According to crypto media outlet Decrypt, Coinbase encountered an operation halt at 12:03 a.m. Hong Kong time, just right at the time that FTX chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried announced the acquisition on Twitter.
2) Our teams are working on clearing out the withdrawal backlog as is. 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 etc. -- we apologize for that.
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 8, 2022
4) A *huge* thank you to CZ, Binance, and all of our supporters. This is a user-centric development that benefits the entire industry. CZ has done, and will continue to do, an incredible job of building out the global crypto ecosystem, and creating a freer economic world.
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 8, 2022
Meanwhile, another cryptocurrency exchange, Kraken, also encountered a halt at around 1 a.m. Hong Kong time.
Early Wednesday morning, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, announced its planned acquisition of FTX at a time when the latter was hit by US$6 billion in withdrawals in 72 hours.
