SBF vs CZ Outcome 2026: FTX Conviction and Binance Pardon

What was the final outcome of SBF vs CZ?

FTX collapsed and never became part of Binance. Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) was convicted on seven fraud and conspiracy counts, sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to forfeit more than US$11 billion. On 12 June 2026, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the district court's judgment.

Changpeng Zhao (CZ) and Binance survived the FTX crisis, but the later legal outcome complicates the original article's claim that CZ was the clear winner. CZ pleaded guilty in November 2023 to causing Binance to fail to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering programme, resigned as CEO and was sentenced to four months in prison and a US$50 million fine. Binance separately pleaded guilty and agreed to pay US$4.3 billion in penalties. President Donald Trump granted CZ a full and unconditional pardon on 21 October 2025. The pardon applied to CZ; it did not reverse Binance's separate corporate plea or turn FTX into an operating exchange.

Person or company	Status verified 13 August 2026
FTX.com	Filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 11 November 2022 and is not operating as the exchange described in the original article.
Sam Bankman-Fried	Convicted on all seven trial counts in November 2023; sentenced to 25 years in March 2024; judgment affirmed on appeal in June 2026.
Binance's proposed FTX acquisition	Never completed. The parties described a non-binding transaction, and Binance withdrew after due diligence.
Changpeng Zhao	Pleaded guilty in November 2023, resigned as Binance CEO, received a four-month sentence in April 2024 and was pardoned in October 2025.
Binance	Continued operating under new CEO Richard Teng after its US criminal resolution and compliance commitments.
FTX customer recoveries	Handled as cash distributions on allowed bankruptcy claims through the FTX Recovery Trust, not as reopened exchange withdrawals.

Did CZ cause FTX to collapse?

CZ's 6 November 2022 announcement that Binance would liquidate its remaining FTT accelerated scrutiny, selling and customer withdrawals. It was a trigger in the public timeline, but the court record does not support treating a tweet or an exchange rivalry as the underlying cause of FTX's shortfall.

The 2026 appellate opinion summarises the evidence accepted at trial: Bankman-Fried transferred billions of dollars from FTX customer accounts to Alameda and elsewhere while telling customers their funds were safe. Witnesses described special privileges in FTX's code, an effectively unlimited withdrawal facility for Alameda, false balance sheets and unauthorised uses of customer funds. The court said the evidence of guilt was substantial and affirmed the judgment.

That distinction matters. The CoinDesk balance-sheet report and Binance's FTT sale helped expose and stress the system; they did not create the prior transfers, accounting practices or liquidity gap established at trial. Even if recovered assets later appreciated enough to fund large creditor distributions, the appellate court held that later repayment prospects did not undo the fraud committed when money was obtained or transferred through material deception.

Was SBF's conviction overturned on appeal?

No. The Second Circuit affirmed the judgment on 12 June 2026. Bankman-Fried had challenged evidentiary rulings, jury instructions, access to potential evidence and the forfeiture order. The panel rejected the grounds for reversal and left the conviction, 25-year prison sentence, three years of supervised release and approximately US$11 billion forfeiture intact.

This was a direct criminal appeal, not the FTX bankruptcy case. Criminal forfeiture may be used to compensate victims when authorised, while distributions from the FTX Recovery Trust arise under the separate Chapter 11 plan. The two processes should not be treated as the same pool or as duplicate guarantees of payment.

What happened to CZ and Binance after FTX?

On 21 November 2023, CZ pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act by causing Binance to fail to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering programme. Binance pleaded guilty to Bank Secrecy Act, unregistered money-transmitter and sanctions-related offences. Its US resolution included US$4.3 billion in penalties, compliance remediation and an independent monitor.

CZ stepped down and Richard Teng became CEO. CZ's October 2025 presidential pardon granted him federal clemency for the offence listed in United States v. Zhao. It does not change the historical fact that he entered a guilty plea, and it did not pardon the Binance corporate entity. Binance continued operating, but its continued scale is not proof that funds held on any centralised exchange are risk-free.

Are FTX customers being repaid?

The confirmed reorganisation plan became effective on 3 January 2025, and the FTX Recovery Trust began making distributions to eligible holders of allowed claims. These are US-dollar distributions made through approved providers such as BitGo, Kraken and Payoneer. They are not restoration of the exact BTC, ETH or other assets a customer held in November 2022.

Payment timing and eligibility vary by claim status, jurisdiction, KYC, tax documentation, sanctions screening and distribution-provider onboarding. FTX's latest public support material said a further distribution was anticipated for 31 July 2026 for eligible claims that met the 16 June record-date requirements. Because that date has passed, a creditor should rely on Step 9 of the official claims portal for their actual amount and status rather than assume a payment was made.

• Use only claims.ftx.com, official FTX support pages and Kroll court notices.
• Do not pay a fee to “unlock” a distribution or send crypto to a recovery wallet.
• Confirm that the email address matches one on FTX's official-email list before opening attachments or entering credentials.
• A late or disputed claim is not automatically allowed; the public filing deadline was 29 September 2023, and late filings may be challenged.
• Do not confuse a percentage recovery on a dollar-denominated claim with recovery of the same quantity of cryptocurrency.

So who won the SBF vs CZ war?

Binance outlasted FTX and the proposed takeover never closed, so CZ won the immediate exchange confrontation in a narrow commercial sense. The complete record is less tidy: SBF was convicted and remains under a 25-year sentence after losing his appeal; CZ resigned after his own guilty plea and sentence, then received a presidential pardon; Binance paid a multibillion-dollar criminal resolution; and FTX customers spent years in bankruptcy proceedings.

The durable lesson is not to pick a personality as the winner. Exchange solvency, custody segregation, governance, leverage and withdrawal access matter more than social-media assurances. Keeping only trading capital on an exchange, testing withdrawals and using self-custody correctly can reduce counterparty exposure, although self-custody introduces its own key-management and smart-contract risks.

Corrections and context for the original 2022 article

• The Binance transaction was a non-binding proposal and never became an acquisition.
• Later trial evidence established fraud and misuse of customer money; FTX's failure was not merely market “FUD” or a temporary Twitter feud.
• FTT concentration and illiquidity were warning signs, but “printed out of thin air” is rhetoric, not a complete accounting analysis.
• SBF's deleted assurances that FTX assets were fine were contradicted by the evidence accepted at trial.
• CZ was not still Binance CEO after November 2023. Richard Teng succeeded him.
• CZ's presidential pardon did not erase Binance's separate corporate guilty plea or penalties.
• FTX bankruptcy distributions are cash payments on allowed claims, not a reopening of FTX or a return of each customer's original coins.

Original November 2022 article (historical archive)

The report below is preserved substantially as published to show what was known and believed during the collapse. Its live-status statements, exchange rankings and “winner” conclusion are superseded by the verified update above.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) and FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), two of the most powerful men in the crypto industry, have been going toe to toe with each other on Twitter. But this fight is much bigger than both of them, as FUDs and controversies surrounding SBF and FTX could potentially impact the crypto industry. In this article, we will break down the core timeline of the feud and explain how its outcome could affect every investor in the crypto space.

For the latest update. Check out our latest video- IT’S OVER: Binance to Acquire FTX

IT'S OVER: Binance to Acquire FTX ?

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Alameda Research Reportedly Insolvent

The current drama surrounding CZ and SBF began when the balance sheet of Alameda Research, the sister quantitative trading firm of FTX, was leaked. According to a private document CoinDesk reviewed, out of $14.6 billion in total assets of Alameda, $3.66 billion is in FTT, FTX’s native token, and $2.16 billion in FTT collateral. Other significant assets also include $3.37 billion of crypto tokens connected to SBF in one form or another including Solana (SOL), Serum (SRM), and more.

This is a big red flag as it indicates that the majority of Alameda’s net equity is FTX’s own centrally controlled token printed out of thin air, making it completely illiquid. Let’s look at it this way: the current market cap of FTT is $2.3 billion and Alameda’s numbers show an excess of nearly 200% of the total circulating supply of FTT. This means that Alameda’s assets cannot be sold without severely impacting the market.

Many crypto experts drew parallels from Celsius Network’s collapse as Alameda is following the same model, leading to widespread rumors of Alameda going insolvent.

NEW: “IS ALAMEDA RESEARCH INSOLVENT?”

According to a recent leak, the firm’s finances rely on the same scheme that destroyed Celsius Network. Will it work out differently for SBF? 🧵👇https://t.co/gs4mQ7ul14

— DIRTY BUBBLE MEDIA: GOOD LUCK, GOOD BYE. (@MikeBurgersburg) November 4, 2022

CEO of Alameda Research Caroline Ellison asserted on Twitter that the balance sheet only reflects a few of their biggest long positions, and the company actually has over $10 billion in assets that are not included in the balance sheet. However, this does not address the issue that Alameda is holding $5 billion worth of “magic money” reported on their balance sheet.

Binance Liquidates Its Entire FTT Holdings

Shortly after the leak, CZ posted a Twitter thread announcing Binance’s full exit from its FTT holdings. But they will do so in a way that minimizes market impact, selling it on the open market at monthly intervals. CZ fired shots at SBF stating that liquidating their FTT is a post-exit risk management, learning from the Terra Luna collapse. This implicated that FTX could potentially repeat history, heading into a death spiral if a bank run were to happen.

As part of Binance’s exit from FTX equity last year, Binance received roughly $2.1 billion USD equivalent in cash (BUSD and FTT). Due to recent revelations that have came to light, we have decided to liquidate any remaining FTT on our books. 1/4

— CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) November 6, 2022

Shortly after, Ellison responded to CZ that Alameda was willing to buy all of Binance’s FTT holdings at $22. Several members of the crypto community believed that the response seemed desperate and was a buyback red flag. CZ eventually declined the bid, and further added that he will not support “people who lobby against other industry players behind their backs.” This is in reference to SBF allegedly supporting the DCCPA draft bill last month that could pose significant threats to DeFi.

If SBF’s alleged political stance is the match and Alameda’s balance sheet is gasoline, then CZ liquidating its entire FTT holdings is striking the match.

This series of events sparked a lot of FUD in the crypto community, resulting in staggering outflows as people were rushing to withdraw funds from FTX, with stablecoin outflows from FTX reaching $451 million according to Nansen data. Reports also show a 4-8 hour delay and increased fees in FTX withdrawals, upsetting many FTX users. At the time of writing, FTT token has dropped 39% from its weekly high.

Sam Bankman-Fried’s Response to Insolvency Rumors

SBF recently issued a response (update: Tweet deleted) assuring people that FTX and its assets are fine. He explains that FTX has enough capital to cover all client holdings and is processing all withdrawals. In response to the cause of the overall situation, SBF stated that a competitor is targeting them with false rumors, throwing shade at CZ. Ironically, at the end of SBF’s Twitter thread, he calls for collaboration with CZ for the ecosystem.

Though as calm as SBF is handling the situation, it does not address the issue that Alameda is holding $5 billion worth of FTT tokens printed out of thin air, the very same model that led to the collapse of Celsius. It is impossible to sell an illiquid asset without severely impacting the market. But at the end of the day, FTX is a highly reputable organization with a lot of resources and manpower.

Larry Cermak, Vice President of Research at The Block, believes that FTX and Alameda has the size to weather through the storm, and that FTX going insolvent is near 0%. He also mentioned however that it is clear there are liquidity issues with FTX currently. Other crypto experts also agreed but also advised investors to treat the situation with caution.

I have nothing against FTX but there is no upside to keeping funds on any exchange. More so on an exchange that has FUD.

I’m almost sure FTX will be ok but in the tiny chance that they are not, I wouldn’t want to think that I had an opportunity to withdraw and didn’t take it! https://t.co/w8n7PWhL11

— Ran Neuner (@cryptomanran) November 7, 2022

SBF vs CZ: Who won the war?

CZ emerges as the clear winner in the war between SBF vs CZ. SBF indirectly admitted defeat on 9th November 2022 when he announced that he agreed to a “strategic transaction with Binance for FTX.com”. This, agreement, however, fell through as detailed in our article- Binance will NOT acquire FTX: What is next?

The SBF vs CZ war finally ended with CZ coming out victorious on 11th November 2022, when SBF announced he had filed FTX, FTX US, and Alameda for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US.

Now with FTX exchange out of the picture, CZ’s Binance exchange comes out top. Binance now has the highest 24-hour trading volume and page visits out of all the centralized cryptocurrency exchanges according to CoinGecko.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit opinion affirming Bankman-Fried's judgment, 12 June 2026
• US Department of Justice: Bankman-Fried's conviction, sentence and forfeiture
• US Department of Justice: Changpeng Zhao plea and Binance corporate resolution
• US Department of Justice pardon list recording CZ's sentence and 21 October 2025 pardon
• Executive grant of clemency for Changpeng Zhao
• FTX Recovery Trust distribution-provider and timing information
• FTX distribution dashboard and July 2026 eligibility FAQ
• FTX customer-claim filing guidance and bar date
• FTX list of official claims and distribution email addresses
• Binance announcement identifying Richard Teng as CEO