When Changpeng "CZ" Zhao of 1st place crypto exchange Binance started the crypto equivalent of a bank run against his rival, 2nd place crypto exchange FTX, I imagine that he thought it would remain relatively contained. Sure, FTX would go down, and it would probably take Alameda Research with it, ruining SBF (Sam Bankman-Fried) in the process, along with anyone who had significant holdings in either firm, but CZ was clearly okay with that.
After all, CZ and SBF did not like each other, and misanthropy bordering on sociopathy seem to be pretty commonplace in the cryptosphere. WAGMI, except for those who don't make it, who clearly didn't deserve to make it. HFSP, paper hands losers. Such is the ethos of crypto.
I don't think that CZ truly appreciated just how unstable crypto's house of cards had become. He should have; the wide swath of destruction wrought by the collapse of Terra/Luna, a crash so disastrous that Terra/Luna's founder, Do Kwon, is still on the run from prosecution and fighting extradition, really should have been warning enough.
But crypto people, in addition to being immune to ethics and devoid of empathy, and also pathologically incapable of learning from experience. Terra/Luna, according to this world view, didn't crash because of any sort of systemic weakness in the cryptosphere; that couldn't have been the reason. That had to be FUD. Right? RIGHT??
And so CZ, oblivious to history, heedless of the suffering of others, driven by a combination of pettiness and greed, pushed SBF, FTX, and Alameda Research over the edge. And, in the process, set in motion a chain reaction that may destroy the cryptosphere completely.
And Molly White is tracking it all on her blog, Web3 is Going Just Fine (and is definitely not an enormous grift that's pouring lighter fluid on our already smoldering planet).