The former crypto-trading giant argues rival Binance should return the roughly US$1.8 billion FTX paid to buy back Binance’s stakes in the company and its U.S. subsidiary, West Realm Shires, because it was fraudulently financed, it said in a lawsuit filed in a Delaware bankruptcy court Sunday. FTX was insolvent at the time and illegally funded the purchase by dipping into customer holdings, its own lawsuit said, arguing the money should be now distributed to its creditors. (The Logic)

Talking point: The lawsuit argues FTX’s repurchase of Binance’s 20 per cent stake in 2021 paved the way for the chain of events that ended with the firm’s collapse. It further alleged  Zhao’s famed series of tweets about the firm’s solvency in November 2022, which sparked a selloff on its platform, were designed to destroy it. Days later, Binance walked away from an agreement to bail out FTX. Zhao, a Canadian, was recently released from prison after being found guilty of violating the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act, while Bankman-Fried is serving a 25-year sentence for fraud and other offences.