The world's leading cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) fell more than 9% and 12% on Tuesday following news that Binance will acquire FTX.com due to a "liquidity crisis."
The deal comes after the confrontation between the leaders of the two companies came to a breaking point in recent days and triggered a significant sell-off of cryptoassets, including bitcoin. The deal, which was supposed to calm the markets, had the opposite effect after it became known that FTX saw about $6 billion in net withdrawals in 72 hours through Tuesday morning.
"In the last 72 hours, we've had roughly $6 billion of net withdrawals from FTX," CEO Sam Bankman-Fried wrote in a message to the company, adding that withdrawals at FTX.com, are "effectively paused," a problem that would be resolved in "the near future."
Bitcoin fell by 9.06% at 1:26 pm ET, selling for $18,740, while Ether dropped 12.65% to go for $1,370.95.
