According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, which cited a source familiar with the situation, cryptocurrency exchange operator Binance is rumoured to pull out of an agreement to acquire exchange business FTX.
According to WSJ, Binance was surprised by "a large hole it noticed in FTX's finances" on Wednesday.
“Our hope was to be able to support FTX’s customers to provide liquidity, but the issues are beyond our control or ability to help,” The report quotes Binance as saying.
On Tuesday, Binance moved to acquire the FTX cryptocurrency exchange after signing a non-binding Letter of Intent (LOI).
“This afternoon, FTX asked for our help. There is a significant liquidity crunch. To protect users, we signed a non-binding LOI, intending to acquire FTX.com and help cover the liquidity crunch fully. We will be conducting a full DD in the coming days,” Binance tweeted on Tuesday.
This move will help to solve FTX’s “liquidity crunch,” according to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao. FTX boss Sam Bankman-Fried responded to the news saying that development brings everything “full circle” as Binance will be the exchange’s first and last investor.
Binance had said it can withdraw from the deal “at any time” as Mr Zhao says that his company will have to do some due diligence before closing the deal.
Both exchanges have been feuding with one another for a while, with Mr Zhao (CZ) announcing via Twitter on Sunday that his exchange is liquidating all of the FTX tokens (FTT) on its books.
Over the weekend, Mr Zhao tweeted that Binance had decided to offload all of its FTT tokens after speculations around the financial difficulties of Alameda Research, the trading firm linked to FTX.