Kevin O’Leary, a well-known Shark Tank investor, lambasted Binance in remarks made during a Senate hearing on Wednesday, claiming that a conflict between FTX and Binance eventually led to FTX’s demise.
O’Leary stated during the hearing that Binance and FTX were “at war with each other, and one put the other out of business intentionally,” adding that Binance, as the victor of this war, is now a “massive unregulated global monopoly.”
The serious accusation is in reference to a heated Twitter argument between two executives of cryptocurrency exchanges, Sam Bankman-Fried and Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ.
CZ declared on November 6 that the remaining FTT tokens Binance acquired from FTX when it withdrew as a shareholder from the business last year would be sold.
O’Leary made an assertive suggestion during the hearing that Changpeng “CZ” Zhao operated Binance in a fashion that did not adhere to the rules and that CZ had no plan to make an effort to comply. O’Leary claimed that CZ frequently failed to give the information required when requested by regulators to clear his company to obtain the required regulatory approvals.
O’Leary claimed that Bankman-Fried had informed him that this became a problem for FTX because Binance was a stakeholder and its name was used by regulators “every time” FTX applied for regulatory licences all around the world.
The comments were given at a Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs hearing on the collapse of FTX and allegations of fraud.
As was previously mentioned, FTX paid Kevin O’Leary $15 million to serve as the organization’s official spokesperson. However, he acknowledged that he lost nearly all of the money when the exchange crashed during a recent appearance on CNBC.
Many people have brought out Kevin O’Leary’s connection to FTX, including CZ. The $15 million O’Leary received from FTX, according to CZ’s tweet on Friday of last week, not only made him changed his stance on crypto but also influenced his alignment with a fraudster.