FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried approached cryptocurrency exchange OKX for a deal on Monday morning, and on Tuesday he announced Binance had signed a non-binding agreement to acquire FTX in the face of an apparent liquidity crunch, an OKX spokesperson said.

Although Bankman-Fried did not disclose the amount, OKX declined to move forward with the deal, citing concerns that an exchange merger would be a step backward for the industry, the spokesman said.

Bankman-fried's deal with Binance Chief Executive Changpeng Zhao came as speculation about FTX's financial health snowballed, with $6 billion withdrawn in the 72 hours leading up to Tuesday morning.

Part of the pressure on FTX came from Changpeng Zhao, who had tweeted on Sunday that Binance would liquidate its holdings of rival FTT tokens due to "recent disclosures."

The spokesperson added that OKX's leadership encouraged Bankman-Fried to work things out with CZ, believing it would be better if CZ agreed not to sell Binance's stake in FTT instead of conducting a monopoly sale.

Neither OKX nor its sister exchange, OKCoin, which caters to U.S. customers, has any exposure to FTX or Bankman-Fried's crypto trading firm Alameda Research.