Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao says Sam Bankman-Fried 'lied to his users, his shareholders, regulators' and should get most of the blame for FTX's collapse

• Changpeng Zhao called out FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried for the crypto exchange's collapse last week.

• The Binance CEO said Bankman-Fried "lied to his users, his shareholders, regulators."

• CZ also said SBF should shoulder most of the blame for the fall of FTX, which filed for bankruptcy on Friday.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said Monday that Sam Bankman-Fried is largely responsible for the collapse of FTX, which filed for bankruptcy last week.

During a Twitter AMA event, Zhao was asked if Binance was partly to blame for FTX's crash by investing in it and giving it legitimacy.

He replied that he doesn't want to create a situation where Binance steps in anytime something goes wrong in the crypto industry, adding that "if a bad actor just wants to be a bad actor, you can't prevent it."

And in the case of FTX, "I think they were lying," Zhao said.

"They lied. FTX lied. I think Sam lied to his employees, his users, his shareholders, regulators all around the world and all the users. So yes, he should take most of the blame," he said.

Requests for comments were not immediately returned by FTX.

But Zhao also acknowledged that venture capital firms and others that invested in FTX, including Binance, should carry some responsibility as they didn't discover the problems in the crypto exchange, though they shouldn't compensate FTX users for losses.

Binance was engulfed in talks last week to rescue the faltering FTX from a liquidity crisis with a takeover plan.

But after signing a non-binding letter of intent last Tuesday to purchase FTX, Binance backed out of the deal the next day after finding more cause for concern when conducting due diligence.

Since then, FTX has gone from one of the crypto world's shinning examples of growth to filing for bankruptcy. Founder Bankman-Fried has also resigned as CEO.

Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Justice Department are reportedly investigating FTX, and the SEC is also reportedly investigating Bankman-Fried himself.

He was also interviewed over the weekend by the Bahamian police, which said it's scrutinizing any "criminal misconduct" at FTX.

The fall of cryptocurrency exchange FTX has drawn numerous comparisons to the collapse of Lehman Brothers, which sparked the 2008 financial crisis.

But a former Securities and Exchange Commission official likened FTX to the Theranos and Bernie Madoff debacles. Meanwhile, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said it's more like the collapse of Enron.

Read the original article on Business Insider