In the hours before it secured rescue financing from its rival Binance, the crypto exchange FTX sought a bailout of more than $1 billion from Silicon Valley and Wall Street billionaires, people familiar with the matter told Semafor.

Deposits have poured out of FTX since Sunday, when Binance said it would dump hundreds of millions of dollars of FTT, a token FTX created that gives holders a discount on its trading fees. That forced the exchange to sell the assets backing that token to meet redemptions, which it was unable to meet Tuesday morning in a classic bank-like run, the people said.