Binance founder Changpeng Zhao has told Elon Musk to stop trolling the exchange over its record hack, in a public exchange on X that also revealed the value of a little-known Binance holding.
How it started
On Friday, Musk replied with a grimacing emoji to a post that estimated Binance’s losses at about $1 billion. Another user then shared an old post from former FTX chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried claiming FTX had enough money to cover its losses, shortly before the exchange collapsed in 2022.
Musk did not explain the emoji, but some users read it as drawing a comparison between Binance and FTX.
CZ’s reply
Zhao first said the losses might be somewhat higher than the post estimated, but that Binance could still cover them. He then addressed Musk directly.
“Elon, have a lot of respect for you, but bad time to troll. Please stop,” he wrote.
Zhao added: “Our SPCX shares (from our $500m investment in your Twitter takeover) are worth more than a billion.”
Binance invested $500 million in Musk’s 2022 takeover of Twitter. Zhao described that stake as now being held in SpaceX shares.
No plan to sell
Binance co-founder Yi He replied that “our company’s revenue for the year is sufficient to cover the losses,” meaning Binance does not need to sell its SpaceX shares.
Zhao later clarified that he had never suggested selling the stake. He said he was only showing Musk some of the funds Binance has available.
The losses behind the row
The hack is far larger than the $1 billion estimate Musk was reacting to. Binance estimates the theft at about $6.3 billion, the largest in crypto history, and says it has reserved more than $6.34 billion of its own funds to cover it. Blockchain analytics firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis have linked the attack to North Korea’s TraderTraitor group.
What happens next
Binance has said withdrawals should reopen by Sunday and that it will publish an updated proof of reserves by Monday. Those, rather than social media posts, will show whether its reassurances hold.
