FTX followed by who next? Zhao Changpeng questioned Coinbase's reserves and then deleted the post, leading to backlash in the community accusing him of spreading FUD.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) questioned in a tweet the discrepancy in Coinbase's asset reserves as reported in two foreign media articles, but later deleted the tweet. The Coinbase CEO responded emphatically, saying, "We are a public company, okay? All financial statements are publicly transparent."
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According to screenshots, CZ referenced a Yahoo Finance report in a tweet on 11/22, which mentioned that Coinbase custody holds 635,000 bitcoins for Grayscale, whereas he recalled that four months ago Coinbase held less than 600,000 bitcoins.
CZ emphasized that he was just stating the news report without any thoughts and mentioned that Glassnode might have the latest data.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong promptly responded in a tweet here:
If you see someone creating panic, remember, our financial data is public, we are a publicly traded company, you can check out our Q3 financial report, we hold 2 million bitcoins, fair value of $39.9 billion as of 9/30. We all need to come together and build the crypto industry responsibly, beware of false information.
CZ also replied:
Brian Armstrong just told me the data in the report is incorrect, I have deleted my previous tweet, let's work together to improve industry transparency.
Previously, CZ had stated that he would be more outspoken about the issues he sees in the crypto industry in the future, even if it might lead to more controversy, or if it all turns out to be a false alarm, but he will still do so to eliminate potential risks.
Now it seems CZ is keeping his promise, but the community is not appreciative.
360Trader, with over 200,000 followers on Twitter, believes:
CZ proved one thing today, everything he does is just for his empire, not for this industry, he deleted the tweet, but also exposed his intentions.