Leaks Reveal Crypto CEOs Are Braced For A $65 Billion Bitcoin And Ethereum Price Earthquake

Bitcoin
BTC
, ethereum and the rest of the crypto market have been hard hit by a devastating price crash this year (and could be about to take another blow).

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The bitcoin price has crashed to around $17,000, dragging down the price of ethereum, causing chaos for crypto companies and forcing Coinbase’s chief executive to issue a dire warning.

Now, following the shock collapse of major crypto exchange FTX, leaks have revealed the chief executives of some of crypto’s biggest companies fear the crypto crisis could destabilize the $65 billion dollar-pegged stablecoin tether—potentially playing havoc with the price of bitcoin, ethereum and other cryptocurrencies.

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“Stop trying to de-peg stablecoins,” Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao reportedly told FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried in a Signal messaging group, according to messages seen by the New York Times
NYT
and the Wall Street Journal. “And stop doing anything. Stop now, don’t cause more damage.”

Bankman-Fried reportedly responded with a denial his bankrupt trading company Alameda Research was trying to knock tether from its dollar price, something that would likely drive down the price of bitcoin, ethereum and the already badly damaged $800 billion crypto market.

“Trades of that size would not make a material impact on tether’s pricing, and to my knowledge neither myself nor Alameda has ever attempted to intentionally de-peg tether or any other stablecoins,” Bankman-Fried said in a statement to the WSJ, asking: “Are you claiming that you think that $250,000 of USDT trading would de-peg it?”

The Signal group chat, which includes the chief technology officer of tether’s issuing company, Paolo Ardoino, rival exchange chief executive Jesse Powell, and tron founder Justin Sun, is called “exchange coordination,” the WSJ reported.

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FTX’s sudden meltdown in November came months after this year’s bitcoin, ethereum and crypto price crash caused the algorithmic stablecoin terraUSD and its support coin luna to implode, setting off a chain reaction that’s still being felt.

The stablecoin market, led by tether, Circle’s USDC
USDC
and Binance’s BUSD
BUSD
, has swollen to a combined value of around $150 billion over the last few years. Stablecoins, most of which are price-pegged to the U.S. dollar, act as the grease to the crypto market’s wheels, helping the flow of funds from the traditional financial system.

Earlier this week, it was reported by Semafor that tether “looks shaky,” quoting a hedge fund trader who claimed expectations are high that tether will be the crypto market’s next casualty.