CZ Memoir Reveals Sam Bankman-Fried’s Casual Plea for Billions

A Billion-Dollar Request Over Lunch

The downfall of FTX remains the defining saga of the crypto era, a cautionary tale of hubris, leverage, and systemic failure. Now, nearly two years after the exchange’s catastrophic implosion in November 2022, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao—widely known as 'CZ'—is pulling back the curtain on the frantic final hours of the firm. In his newly released memoir, Freedom of Money, Zhao provides a firsthand account of the moment he realized the sheer scale of Sam Bankman-Fried’s deception.

Perhaps the most jarring revelation in the book is the casual nature of the desperate plea for liquidity made by the then-CEO of FTX. According to Zhao, Bankman-Fried reached out in a state of apparent calm, requesting billions of dollars in a phone call that lacked the gravity one might expect from a company facing a multi-billion dollar liquidity hole. Zhao describes the request as 'shockingly nonchalant,' comparing the ease with which Bankman-Fried sought a massive capital injection to the trivial act of ordering a sandwich.

The Anatomy of an Implosion

The collapse of FTX, once a titan of the digital asset landscape, triggered a contagion that wiped out billions in market capitalization and fundamentally altered the regulatory landscape for cryptocurrency exchanges globally. The events of November 2022 began with a run on FTX’s native token, FTT, following reports that questioned the solvency of Bankman-Fried’s trading firm, Alameda Research.

As the crisis deepened, Binance—the world’s largest exchange by volume—initially signed a non-binding letter of intent to acquire FTX. However, the deal collapsed within 24 hours after Binance’s due diligence team uncovered what they described as 'mishandled customer funds' and alleged U.S. agency investigations. Zhao’s memoir clarifies that the decision to walk away was rooted in the rapid discovery of the internal rot that had been obscured from public view for years.