Binance boss says no one can be protected from a ‘bad player’

The head of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange has said after the collapse of rival FTX that no one can be protected from a "bad player" and announced plans for an industry ''recovery fund" for struggling crypto firms.

Changpeng Zhao, the founder and chief executive of Binance, said it was not "100%" the responsibility of watchdogs to protect consumers and the crypto sector had to play its own part. However, he said preventing a rogue figure from evading regulators was difficult.

"No one can protect [from] a bad player, to be very frank, if a guy is very good at lying, and very good at just pretending to be what he's not. [If] somebody wants to violate the law, the law is not going to prevent that. The law can help to reduce that," Zhao said, speaking on Monday at the B20 business summit in Bali.

Zhao did not refer to the founder of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, in his comments but was responding to a question about regulation after the FTX collapse.

The FTX group, a top five cryptocurrency exchange before its implosion, filed for bankruptcy protection in the US on Friday. The Financial Times reported at the weekend that FTX had $9bn (£7.65bn) of liabilities and $900m in liquid assets - those it could easily sell - when it collapsed.

Zhao also announced on Monday plans for an "industry recovery fund" to help crypto firms that are illiquid, or struggling to sell assets in a volatile market.

"To reduce further cascading negative effects of FTX, Binance is forming an industry recovery fund, to help projects who are otherwise strong, but in a liquidity crisis," he wrote.