How Binance played a key role as FTX collapse unfolded

Known by the monikers SBF and CZ, Sam Bankman-Fried and Changpeng Zhao could be seen as two sides of the same crypto coin. In a few short years, they built two of the largest digital currency exchanges: FTX and the biggest, Binance. As former business partners and major players in a multibillion-dollar industry, their highs, and lows, are intertwined. But their backgrounds are very different.

It turns out a renewed bout of volatility was imminent.

This lobbying aside appeared to be a reference to Bankman-Fried, who had spent millions of dollars funding US Democrat politicians and lobbying for closer regulation of crypto trading in Washington.

In an apparent cessation of hostilities, Zhao announced that Binance would buy FTX and rescue it.