Binance founder CZ says crypto exchange didn't sell any SpaceX stock amid hack Brian Sozzi · Executive Editor Thu, November 12, 2026 at 12:48 PM EST 2 min read SPCX +2.18% TROLL36313-USD -4.75% TSLA +0.38% Trade SPCX on Coinbase Trading disclosure Trading disclosure The above button links to Coinbase. Yahoo Finance is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser and does not offer securities or cryptocurrencies for sale or facilitate trading. Coinbase pays us for certain activity generated through this link. Prices displayed are informational.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhou has no beef with fellow crypto-loving billionaire and Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX (SPCX) CEO Elon Musk.
"I am still very friendly with Elon. I don't think he has any hostility towards me," Zhou, known as "CZ" in the crypto community, said at Yahoo Finance Invest.
The two got into a public spat on X after hackers stole an estimated $6.3 billion from the crypto exchange on Oct. 29. The following day, Musk responded to posts questioning Binance's ability to cover customer losses with mocking emojis.
"Bad time to troll. Please stop," CZ fired back, reminding Musk that Binance's $500 million investment in his 2022 Twitter takeover is now worth more than $1 billion through its SpaceX stake.
CZ confirmed Binance did not sell any SpaceX shares. "We didn't need to," CZ said, adding, "I never said we would."
Binance is the world's largest cryptocurrency trading platform and holds approximately $171 billion in total assets on its platform. The company is led by co-CEOs Richard Teng and Yi Le.
CZ stepped down as Binance's CEO in 2023 after the Justice Department charged him with running a financial platform without basic anti-money laundering safeguards following a years-long investigation. CZ served four months in federal prison and was released in September 2024. In October of the following year, President Trump signed a full pardon for Zhao.
Zhao, who's worth a reported $65 billion, remains a major shareholder and the public face of the platform.
Regarding the historic hack of Binance, blockchain intelligence firms and the FBI attributed the 20-minute raid with high confidence to TraderTraitor, an elite state-sponsored cyber unit tied to North Korea.
Rather than cracking private cryptographic keys, the attackers reportedly breached internal automated transaction workflows via a Binance employee's laptop.
Binance moved swiftly to stabilize the situation by guaranteeing full customer restitution, deploying corporate treasury reserves, Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) capital, and insurance funds to replenish user balances.
Still, CZ acknowledged Musk's post didn't help in the moment.
"He really didn't help. He just caused us like more user panic. Like he's very influential," CZ said. "At the same time, it's kind of a little bit of a good distraction away from what's happening with all the stuff. People kind of talk about this, two billionaires — that they're going to fight or not. So in that regard, it's a little bit of a distraction to something else, which may actually be somewhat good."
Follow Brian Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email him at brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com.
