Binance co-founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao says he never threatened to sell SpaceX shares or pressure Elon Musk. He says he mentioned Binance's stake only to counter an FTX comparison after the exchange's hack.
Binance co-founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao said on Saturday that he never threatened to sell SpaceX shares or pressure Elon Musk. CZ claimed he raised Binance's stake only to counter comparisons with beleaguered crypto exchange FTX after the hack.
CZ rejects the selling claim
In a post on X on October 31, CZ said the FTX comparison in the thread may have implied Binance lacked funds, which he called untrue. He also described the SpaceX holdings as a drop in the ocean relative to the company's scale and said SPCX is one of the best stocks to hold for the long term.
He then described the principle behind the denial. According to CZ: "I don't make threats", which he called one of his core principles that he has also written about in his book.
CZ also described Musk as one of the strongest builders in the world and denied any intention to fight him. Instead, he wrote, the target should be the North Korean hackers.
How the dispute began
The controversy began after Binance was hacked for $6.3 billion. Musk posted a message saying every day is zeroday and replied with laughing emojis, a post that referenced past FTX claims that client funds were fully covered.
In reply, CZ said it was a bad time to troll and asked Musk to stop. He said Binance's SPCX shares, from a $500m investment in the Twitter takeover, are worth more than a billion.
Later, he outlined rough math on the remaining funding gap after frozen assets and Binance's Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), noting the SPCX stake as one available non-crypto asset. Binance co-CEO Yi He had addressed the discussion earlier, saying the company's annual revenue is sufficient to cover the losses, so Binance does not yet need to sell the SpaceX shares.
Source: CoinGape
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