The Bologna and the Bailout: CZ Dishes On That Time SBF Asked for Billions Like It Was a Deli Order

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) says Sam Bankman-Fried asked him for "a couple of billion dollars nonchalantly, as if he were asking for a bologna sandwich" during the call that preceded Binance's attempt to acquire FTX in November 2022. The audacity was, frankly, impressive. Most people at least pretend to practice humility when requesting nine figures from a competitor. SBF apparently skipped that step entirely, treating billion-dollar bailouts like he was ordering a meatball sub at halftime.

Spoiler: CZ never had any intention of going through with it. This was never a rescue mission in his mind — it was more like stopping to check if a car crash victim still had a pulse before driving past. "I didn't have any interest in owning FTX. I also wasn't that interested in helping SBF," Zhao writes in his memoir Freedom of Money, released Tuesday. "But we may have to step in to protect the users and the industry." Ah yes, the classic "I'm doing this for the ecosystem" press release before immediately doing nothing.

He signed the non-binding Letter of Intent purely as a formality: "I was explicit that we were not making any commitment. Our team would simply assess the numbers and then decide." In crypto terms, this is the equivalent of saying "let's grab coffee" to someone you're mildly annoyed at — technically not lying, but everyone knows what's actually happening.

On the collapse itself, Zhao is clear about where it went off the rails. When Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison publicly offered to buy Binance's FTT holdings at $22 each — an attempt to stabilize the market — Zhao calls it "a fatal mistake." She had just revealed her floor price. Professional traders immediately shorted FTT through that level. The token fell to $15, then $10, then $5. Within 72 hours, $6 billion had exited FTX. And just like that, a $22 floor became a suggestion written in sand.

Zhao also reveals the existence of "Exchange Collaboration," a Signal group set up by FTX