Changpeng Zhao lost $6.3 billion in a hack. Then he wrote a plea to a man who answered with a grimacing face.
Elon Musk posted emojis. Laughing ones. A grimace. No words. Zhao replied with a hostage letter.
"Bad time to troll," he wrote. "Please stop."
Notice the "please." Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, said please to a cartoon face.
Then came the leverage. Zhao reminded Musk that Binance put $500 million into the Twitter takeover. That stake is now SpaceX shares. Worth over $1 billion, he says.
SpaceX is valued around $2 trillion. Zhao brought a billion dollars to a trillion-dollar staring contest. That's about a sixth of the loss. It's also the financial leverage of a guy flashing a Costco card at a yacht dealership.
Binance co-CEO Yi He chimed in. Revenue covers the losses, she said. No need to sell the SpaceX shares.
So the stake is vital leverage over Musk. And also not needed. Pick one.
Zhao later clarified he never suggested selling. He just wanted to show Musk some of the funds on hand. Pure flexing. During a $6.3 billion robbery. Like a man whose house burned down, pointing out he still owns a nice garage.
Investigators reportedly suspect North Korea's TraderTraitor group. Pyongyang stole the money. Musk stole the mood.
And you, holding a bag of whatever Binance lists next, thought this industry was about decentralization. It's about a billionaire asking another billionaire for a hug, citing his Twitter receipts.
Musk once called Binance "shady" over a paused Dogecoin withdrawal in 2021. Zhao answered with a Tesla recall. They've been doing this for five years. The hack is just new material.
Zhao asked for support. He got a grimace.
It was the most honest review Binance has ever received.
Photo by on Unsplash
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