Failed Binance FTX Deal to Be Probed by UK Lawmakers

Binance has to submit all evidence around the now suspended deal to buy assets of FTX.com to U.K. lawmakers, reported Bloomberg.

Binance will reportedly provide documentation around its deal negotiations with FTX and the decision-making for the sale of the FTX native token, FTT.

Exchange to Provide All Documents to U.K. Regulators

An exchange spokesperson told the news outlet, “Binance will provide the documents it committed to sharing.”

The news comes as FTX’s former competitor and largest exchange by volume, Binance, is appearing as a witness for a U.K.-led inquiry into the exchange. 

Daniel Trinder, Binance’s vice president of government affairs, said there was no intention to kill competition. Instead, Trinder argued that after the deal announcement, they didn’t think the assets were “worth the value.”

Trinder promised that Binance would provide the committee with internal documents about the aborted deal.

Meanwhile, U.K. lawmakers warn of cascading effects on the market as FTX declares bankruptcy.

Cascading Effect of FTX Bankruptcy

Ian Taylor, the executive director of Crypto U.K., told the Treasury select committee, “What we’re hearing is that the majority of the funds in that platform were from institutional investors.”

He added: “Now there are many UK-regulated crypto exchanges that take retail money, and they are at the moment hopefully OK. We’ve not seen anything. But … this is a super fluid situation.”

As many businesses have money trapped in the exchange, a number of cryptocurrency firms have started to experience the full effects of the FTX crash.

Sequoia Capital, a venture capital firm, reported a loss on its $213.5 million exchange investment. The Solana-based Star Atlas game studio revealed that the FTX crash cost it half of its cash runway.

Meanwhile, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has clarified that the exchange doesn’t operate in Singapore after it was alleged that many Singaporeans lost money as the exchange went down.

The FTX Group is claimed to have over a million creditors as it moves towards bankruptcy.

Travis Kling, head of crypto hedge fund Ikigai, told the Guardian: “There’s a lot of uncertainty about what’s going to happen next … At some point, we’ll be able to make a better call on whether Ikigai is going to keep going or just move into wind down mode.”