Nir Lahav, a California investor, has just filed a class action lawsuit against crypto exchange Binance and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, alleging unfair competition against FTX.
According to the plaintiff, the defendants attempted to monopolize the market by harming FTX and its affiliated platforms.
The issue centers on posts on X made by Zhao in early November last year. In one of the threads, the Binance CEO announced a decision to liquidate the company's assets in FTT.
Access more than 50 of the world's financial markets directly from your EXANTE account – including NASDAQ, London Stock Exchange and Tokyo Stock Exchange
According to the plaintiff, this represented up to 5% of the supply of FTX’s utility tokens.
Binance's CEO then announced a strategic partnership with a competitor, involving a possible acquisition of the platform.
However, on November 10, Binance abandoned the purchase of FTX, citing its due diligence results and negative news.
Lahav has said:
"Zhao publicly disseminated this information [on the withdrawal of the acquisition offer] on twitter and other social media platforms to hurt FTX Entities that ultimately lead to a rushed and unprecedented collapse of FTX Entities."