Zhao, founder of the world’s largest digital asset exchange, said the full impact of the collapse on rival crypto exchange FTX has yet to be felt. Speaking at a conference in Indonesia, he said the global financial crisis was “probably an accurate analogy” to this week’s events. “With the decline of FTX, we will see cascading effects,” Zhao said. “Especially for those close to the FTX ecosystem, they will be adversely affected.” The comments come as cryptocurrency traders fear further waves of contagion after Zhao’s bid to buy FTX collapsed earlier this week, leaving one of the most prominent cryptocurrency exchanges teetering on the brink of collapse. Its failure would also deal a blow to blue-chip investors who had amassed stakes in the group, including venture capital firm Sequoia and Japan’s SoftBank. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, has fallen 17 percent over the past five days, hitting a two-year low amid turbulent negotiations between Binance and FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. Bankman-Fried apologized for the liquidity crisis at FTX, but has not provided a detailed account of what caused it. “This lack of transparency is what every trader and investor will be very wary of going forward,” said Anatoly Crachilov, CEO of Nickel Digital Asset Management. Recommended Zhao also questioned a deal FTX struck to buy assets of another cryptocurrency lender, Voyager, out of insolvency, saying FTX “apparently . . . won’t have the money’ for the $1.4 billion transaction. “Some other projects will find themselves in similar situations. I think it will take a few weeks for most of them to come out,” Zhao said. Genesis, a major cryptocurrency trading firm, said its derivatives business had about $175 million stuck in the frozen exchange. The company said the funds were “not material to our business” and would not affect trading or trading operations. But the head of Binance was confident that the cryptocurrency sector will eventually recover. “The market will heal itself,” Zhao said. Video: Cryptocurrencies: how regulators lost control Click here to visit the Digital Assets dashboard