Binance CEO says Forbes is losing credibility by writing ‘baseless articles’

Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao described Forbes’ article comparing his exchange and bankrupt FTX as “another FUD” and “baseless.”

In a Feb. 27 report, Forbes wrote that Binance moved $1.8 billion in stablecoin collateral to numerous hedge funds.

While Binance chief strategy officer Patrick Hillman denied that the exchange exposed its users’ funds, CZ said:

“[Forbes] seem to not understand the basics of how an exchange works.”

He added that the report explained Binance users’ withdrawals as “millions of shifted collateral.” According to CZ, Forbes ignored users’ deposit transactions.

In comparison with FTX, CZ said the two exchanges are different. The Binance CEO pointed out that the firm had processed billions in withdrawals in December 2022 when he was “socially hanging out with crypto friends” in Dubai.

At the time, Binance recorded unprecedented outflows from its reserves — at the peak of the FUD, it processed $6.6 billion in withdrawals over seven days.

The exchange founder added that Binance implemented Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s suggestion for exchanges to implement a proof-of-reserves using the zero-knowledge (ZK) approach.

CZ further highlighted that his Chinese nationality was brought up in the article again. CZ had previously refuted claims that his exchange was a Chinese company. Besides that, the exchange CEO has also severally stated that he is a Canadian citizen.

He concluded that:

“I am deeply disappointed that Forbes continues to write baseless articles, losing their own credibility.”

Journalist at CryptoSlate

Oluwapelumi is a believer in the transformative power Bitcoin and the blockchain industry holds.