The founder of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX has been accused of lying to customers amid fears the fallout from its bankruptcy could spread through “cascading contagion”.

Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, founder of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, claimed his arch-rival, Sam Bankman-Fried, misled clients and investors as FTX spiralled out of control.

Zhao blamed the collapse on Bankman-Fried. He said: “In this case I think they were lying. FTX lied. I think Sam lied to his employees, his users, his shareholders, regulators all around the world.”

The allegations pile further pressure on the 30-year-old Democratic Party donor. Bahamas-headquartered FTX, which allowed consumers and businesses to buy-and-sell digital assets such as Bitcoin, imploded last week with liabilities of $US9 billion ($13.4 billion). The company was valued at $US32 billion in an investment round in January.

Zhao said there was a risk of “some cascading contagion effects” that could hit smaller exchanges. Several relatively minor trading companies and exchanges used FTX to store their digital currencies. The bankruptcy has effectively left them locked out of their accounts.

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The chief executive of Crypto.com, another large digital coin exchange, took to YouTube to defend the company’s “very strong balance sheet”, adding it only had exposure of $US10 million to the collapse of FTX. Kris Marszalek said: “We never engage as a company in any irresponsible lending practices, we never took any third-party risks.”

Crypto.com’s own digital token has fallen 50 per cent in the last week on the back of the market turmoil. Marszalek said the company would publish an audited “proof of reserves”.

However Elon Musk, the Tesla chief executive who has advocated for cryptocurrencies, said the failure could lead to “a long winter” for digital coins.