SBF loaded the gun, but CZ pulled the trigger...

By now you have likely heard about all the drama going on lately with FTX and Binance and SBF and CZ.

The basic premise is that SBF (CEO of FTX) allegedly moved/loaned customer funds, possibly even invested them via Alameda (their quazi linked hedge fund), to the point that there wasn't the liquidity there for said customers to withdraw their funds in the event they all tried to withdraw them at once...

Which is exactly what they tried to do on Sunday/Monday.

This was a mistake on SBF's and FTXs part and a bad move, especially when they implied everywhere that they had the liquidity anytime anyone wanted to withdraw.

Enter Binance, a rival crypto exchange...

Binance and CZ figured this lack of liquidity out and decided they were going to do something about it...

Instead of quietly going behind the scenes and talking to FTX and SBF about their practices and perhaps working to do something about it, he decided to blast it all over Twitter and tell the world what he thought was going on inside FTX.

When he did this, it caused a run on FTX which more or less exposed what was going on, and made the exchange technically insolvent, almost instantly.

While no one can condone what SBF and FTX were doing, though I am sure they had their reasons and hey even some of the worst things were done with good intentions initially, it's CZ who technically pulled the trigger here...

If CZ had quietly gone behind the scenes and worked with SBF and FTX to remedy their issues, perhaps we wouldn't have seen the crypto markets crash by 30% and FTX most likely wiped out in a day, and very likely the customers who held their investments there.

Then if SBF refused or couldn't do what was needed, then perhaps going public was the way to go for CZ, but nope, CZ either was literally not very smart in not realizing the fallout that would come out of this, or he knew exactly what he was doing and was trying to take out a rival competitor...

You decide which one it was.

Personally, I actually think CZ didn't think the fallout would be what it was, he thought he was simply throwing some shade at a rival and trying to win their little public twitter "feud".

So, from that context I think CZ is more in the not very bright camp as opposed to the nefarious evil genius camp, just the impression I have gotten from following the guy for years.

Either way, just to be clear, SBF and FTX never should have mingled with customer funds, period. However, CZ also shouldn't have blasted em publicly and caused the bank run without trying to work it out privately first for the good of the entire crypto industry...

If he had done this, perhaps all of this literally could have been avoided and bitcoin would possibly be trading up near $25k currently (and steem up near $.27) with a great CPI print this morning...

Oh what could have been... sigh.