SBF: There were early plans to sell FTX to Binance

SBF testified on Friday that he had planned to sell FTX to Binance when it was in its infancy, in part because he was concerned that he would not be able to successfully recruit customers. SBF believes that FTX can be built as a place specifically to provide services for margin traders, and there are basically no companies doing this business in the industry at the time, so he expects exchanges like Binance may be interested in buying FTX. SBF told jurors he was ultimately convinced he could grow FTX well, even though he believed his exchange had only a 20% chance of success. "Considering that the largest exchanges at the time were multi-billion dollar companies, even a 20% chance was a huge opportunity," he said. SBF stated that FTX’s revenue in 2019 was as high as $20 million. By 2021, FTX’s daily revenue will reach $3 million. (Decrypt) Previously, it was reported on October 19 that the U.S. Department of Justice hired Peter Easton, an accounting professor at the University of Notre Dame, to track billions of dollars in funds between Alameda and FTX. The professor testified at the SBF trial hearing that FTX used customer funds in 2022 to repurchase all of the company’s shares held in Binance, with more than $1 billion coming from FTX’s customer funds. Easton testified that user deposits were also reinvested in businesses and real estate, used for political contributions and donated to charities. Previously, in 2019, Binance invested an undisclosed amount in FTX as part of a strategic partnership between the two companies. Binance CEO CZ said in a 2022 article that the company had received more than $2.1 billion in BUSD and FTX’s FTT tokens as part of the buyback.