Patrick Hilmann, the Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) of leading crypto exchange Binance, alleged that Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the founder and former CEO of the now-defunct rival exchange FTX, consistently criticized Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) before FTX’s collapse, a behavior Hilmann referred to as “shading.”
In a recent tweet, the CSO disclosed that SBF was fond of spreading fake rumors about CZ and often called him an “evil Chinese.”
Hilmann’s tweet highlighted a report by veteran business writer William Cohan where Anthony Scaramucci, popularly known as “The Mooch,” an American financier and the founder of SkyBridge Capital, discussed the state of his relationship with SBF before FTX met its demise.
Among other things, Scaramucci mentioned that he had been on a $1 billion fundraising trip with SBF to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the weeks leading up to the FTX saga.
As CryptoPotato reported in September, FTX had been in talks with several investors, seeking to conduct a billion-dollar raise to increase its valuation to $32 billion. Part of the funds to be raised was supposed to rescue other firms hit by the crypto winter.
During the trip, SBF met with some officials in Dubai, including the UAE Sovereign wealth fund, and Scaramucci was absent from most of those meetings as he had other businesses to attend to. However, a colleague eventually informed Scaramucci that SBF had been bad-mouthing CZ during those meetings.
The Mooch disclosed that SBF’s behavior was worrisome, as politeness was deemed necessary in the corporate world due to the unpredictability of life. Moreover, CZ could easily hear about the degenerating remarks.
“He was lighting CZ up. And these are small towns. They look glitzy from a travel brochure, but trust me, these are small, very connected, interconnected towns. It got back to CZ,” Scaramucci said.
Scaramucci further suggested that SBF’s remarks must have pushed CZ to announce that he would liquidate his $500 million investment in FTX’s native token (FTT). However, Hilmann clarified that SBF’s actions had nothing to do with CZ’s decision, as the degenerative remarks had become a norm.