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The utility token of the defunct crypto exchange FTX, FTT is one of the top gainers in the last few days, rising 55% in just 48 hours alone. This has led to speculations as to what may be driving the token’s rally. One of them relates to a recent event in the crypto industry.
FTT Token’s Recent Rally Propelled By Binance News
In a post on its X (formerly Twitter) platform, the market intelligence platform Santiment noted that the second rally for FTT came after the Binance news. The world’s largest crypto exchange and its former CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao had both pleaded to criminal charges and agreed to a settlement of over $4 billion in fines.
As to the correlation between both events, Binance and FTX have always been closely knitted in several regards. For one, CZ, in particular, has sometimes been credited for being responsible for FTX’s collapse. Prior to the bank run on FTX, the former executive had made a tweet about his company liquidating their FTT holdings.
As such, it is believed that Binance, going through this difficult phase, comes off as bullish for the FTT token because of the animosity that the FTX and Binance ecosystem share. Interestingly, while FTT has continued to rally, Binance’s BNB has suffered an inverse fate. BNB is down by over 6% in the last seven days, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Sam Bankman-Fried’s Conviction Also Contributed
It is worth mentioning that the FTT rally didn’t just kickstart on the back of the Binance news. FTT’s market value is reported to be about 255% up against Bitcoin in the past 3 weeks. This resurgence began just after the 10 largest wallets began accumulating, with $12.8 million worth of FTT bought by these whales since November 3.
Interestingly, November 3 happens to be a day after FTX’s former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), was convicted. The FTX founder was convicted of all seven charges leveled against him. Going by this, it would seem that his conviction was conceived as bullish for these whales who decided to double down on their FTT holdings.
Another factor that might also be contributing to the token’s resurgence is the talks about FTX making a comeback. The defunct crypto exchange is reported to have suitors who are interested in rebooting it. The Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, had also noted that it was a possibility as far as the rules and guidelines are abided by.
At the time of writing, FTT is currently trading at around $4.50, up over 21% in the last 24 hours and up by over 336% in the past month, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
FTT tops list of gainers | Source: FTTUSDT on Tradingview.com
Featured image from IQ.Wiki, chart from Tradingview.com
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recently Article by Reuters Said DOJ prosecutors have seized a staggering $700 million from the creator of the shabby FTX exchange Sam Bankman-Fried (widely known in the crypto space as SBF). The source cited by the article is Friday’s court filing.
Dogecoin co-founder Billy Marcus shared the article on his Twitter handle, adding a sarcastic note, in which he cited the SBF, after the FTX founder told the court that only $100,000 of his billions was left. The above funds seized from SBF came largely in the form of Robinhood shares.
Tech mogul Elon Musk, owner of Tesla and Twitter, commented on that with two ROFL emojis. When the exchange went bankrupt and SBF was accused of defrauding investors, both Musk and Marcus were highly critical of FTX and its founder.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 21, 2023
Robinhood Shares, Binance and SBF Bank Deposits
SBF has been accused of using large sums in USD belonging to FTX users in an attempt to save its crypto trading firm Alameda Research, but it pleaded not guilty to those fraud charges. He will face trial over it in the fall of this year.
Earlier this year, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the freezing of Bankman-Fried’s assets. The lion’s share of them were in the form of Robinhood shares (HOOD), however, there were also funds in several banks and crypto deposits on the Binance digital exchange.
Specifically, DOJ federal prosecutors this week seized approximately $100 million from accounts SBF held at Silvergate Bank linked to FTX Digital Markets, a Bahamas-based FTX subsidiary.
Elon Musk turns down SBF’s $5 billion offer
As first reported by U.Today, last year, before the FTX troubles became apparent to everyone in the market, Sam Bankman-Fried approached Elon Musk to help him buy the social media giant. to offer to invest $ 5 billion. He also offered to help Twitter convert to Blockchain Rail.
Musk explained to him that doing Twitter on the blockchain was an impossible task and turned down his offer of money. In all, Musk paid $44 billion to become the sole owner of Twitter, a deal finalized at the end of October last year.
source: u.today
Yuri Molchan
Twitter boss and co-creator of DOGE have reacted to news of Fed prosecutors seizing nearly $1 billion from former FTX boss
A recent article by Reuters stated that prosecutors from the DOJ have confiscated a staggering $700 million from the creator of the battered FTX exchange Sam Bankman-Fried (widely known in the crypto space as SBF). The source cited by the article is Friday court filing.
Dogecoin co-founder Billy Markus shared the article on his Twitter handle, adding a sarcastic comment, in which he cited SBF, when the FTX founder told the court that he only had $100,000 left from his billions. The above mentioned funds confiscated from SBF came largely in the form of Robinhood shares.
Tesla and Twitter boss, tech mogul Elon Musk commented on that with two ROFL emojis. Both Musk and Markus have been highly critical of FTX and its founder when the exchange went insolvent and SBF was charged with defrauding investors.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 21, 2023
Robinhood shares, Binance and banks deposits of SBF
SBF has been charged with using huge sums in USD belonging to FTX users in an attempt to bail out his crypto trading firm Alameda Research, but he pleaded innocent to those fraud charges. He will be facing trial in the fall of this year on this.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the seizure of Bankman-Fried’s assets. The lion share of them was in the form of Robinhood shares (HOOD), however, there were also funds in several banks and crypto deposits on the Binance digital exchange.
In particular, this week federal prosecutors from the DOJ seized nearly $100 million from SBF’s accounts, which he kept in Silvergate Bank linked to FTX Digital Markets, an FTX subsidiary based in the Bahamas.
Elon Musk turned down SBF $5 billion offer
As reported by U.Today earlier, last year, well before FTX trouble became obvious to everyone in the market, Sam Bankman-Fried got in touch with Elon Musk to offer him an investment of $5 billion to help him buy the social media giant. He also offered help in switching Twitter to blockchain rails.
Musk explained to him that Twitter on blockchain was an impossible thing to do and turned down his offer with the money. Overall, Musk paid $44 billion to become the sole owner of Twitter, the deal was finalized in late October last year.
The biggest news in the cryptoverse for Nov. 7 includes Bitcoin mining difficulty’s decrease by 0.19%, Binance’s decision to liquidate all its FTT holdings, and FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s assurance that the exchange is not going bankrupt.
CryptoSlate Top Stories
Bitcoin mining difficulty barely adjusts downward by 0.19% as miner pressure continues
Bitcoin’s (BTC) mining difficulty was adjusted on Nov. 7 and recorded a small 0.19% drop.
The most recent adjustment before this was on October 24, when the mining difficulty recorded a new all-time high, reaching 36.84 trillion. The 0.19% drop retreated it back to 36.76 trillion.
Fears of Terra Luna style collapse of FTX native token FTT as Binance liquidates its holdings
Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) Tweeted on Nov. 6 and said that Binance would liquidate all FTX native tokens (FTT) it held because of “revelations that came to light.” Binance had over $500 million in FTT tokens at the time of CZ’s Tweet.
This kindled the discussions of FTX’s possible collapse and dropped the FTT token down by 9.4% in one day.
SBF says ‘FTX is fine. Assets are fine’ with over $1B in excess cash amid rumors of liquidity crunch
FTX‘s CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), noticed Binance’s decision to liquidate its FTT reserves and published a thread to address concerns regarding FTX’s bankruptcy.
1) A competitor is trying to go after us with false rumors.
FTX is fine. Assets are fine.
Details:
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 7, 2022
SBF ensured the community by saying that FTX “has enough to cover all client holdings” and called out to Binance’s CZ to work together for the ecosystem.
Over 50K BTC from Silk Road worth officially seized by DOJ after 10 year investigation
The U.S. Department of Justice officially seized 50,676 Bitcoin in connection with the 2012 Silk Road fraud. The amount equates to roughly $1.05 billion today.
The prosecutors said that the Bitcoins were found hidden in devices belonging to Silk Road attacker James Zhong, who has been taken into custody after his trial on Nov. 4.
Could Bitcoin miner sell pressure indicate further upside potential?
Bitcoin miners have been selling their assets since early 2022, and on-chain data shows that the sell-out rate is accelerating.
While this usually means that the market is underperforming, Bitcoin history proves it has also been a precursor to the upwards movement in price levels.
Ethereum supply concentration in smart contracts hits all time high
The amount of Ethereum (ETH) supply concentrated in smart contracts reached an all-time high.
Smart contracts consist of 0.45% of all Ethereum behind staked Ethereum at 0.57% and exchange balances at 0.17%. The supply concentration on exchanges has been declining since mid-2020, while smart contracts and staked ethereum has been increasing since late 2020.
FTX stablecoin reserves plunge as community fears bankrun
Binance’s decision to liquidate its FTT assets also influenced the rest of the community. While crypto influencers urged the community to exit FTX, crypto exchange platforms like Jump Crypto and Nexo also drained most of their assets out of FTX over the last 24 hours.
Hoskinson’s Twitter proposal for Cardano-Dogecoin tie-in snubbed by Reddit mods
Cardano (ADA) founder Charles Hoskinson shared a video on Nov. 6 and offered to build a decentralized Twitter that operates with Dogecoin (DOGE) and Cardano.
Dogecoin Reddit moderators removed Hoskinson’s proposal video from their subreddit on Nov. 7, while the community blamed Hoskinson for “trying to ride on Doge’s wave.”
SBF reveals he donated to Republicans & Democrats as lobbying by crypto firms continues ahead of the midterms
FTX’s CEO SBF Tweeted on Nov. 5 to reveal that he supports bipartisan politicians who support permissionless finance.
1) I was a significant donor in both D and R primaries.
Supporting constructive candidates across the aisle to prevent pandemics and bring a bipartisan climate to DC.
And working with them to support permissionless finance.
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 5, 2022
FTX is not the only crypto company that supports politicians with a pro-crypto discourse. However, SBF seems like he’s also supporting politicians personally and the FTX treasury.
Strong Polygon rally outperforms Bitcoin, other large caps
According to CryptoSlate data, Polygon (MATIC) has outperformed Bitcoin since November 4. MATIC’s current price marks at $0.00006085 mark its all-time high of 77 weeks against Bitcoin.
CryptoSlate, Crypto Briefing onboard Access Protocol Ecosystem to leverage Web3 Paywall
CryptoSlate and CryptoBriefing became the latest participants to join Access Protocol Web3 Paywall. The two news outlets have over 1,5 million combined monthly users and can benefit from Access Protocol’s content paywall system.
FTX’s FTT risks drastic fall as tokens flood exchanges
As a result of the exits from the FTX exchange, around 50 million FTT tokens were transferred to other exchanges within 24 hours. Since 90% of FTX’s treasury is in. FTT, this traffic brings the token so close to the verge of a drastic fall.
Winning lottery 9x in a row easier than breaching Bitcoin’s security
According to reports, winning Lotto Powerball nine times in a row is easier than breaching Bitcoin’s security. Therefore, by investing in Bitcoin, investors can enjoy a higher chance of securing their funds to make more wealth.
Research Highlight
Research: Bitcoin options traders expect price to hit $30,000 in Q4
CyrptoSlate analysts revealed that the Implied Volatility and Open Interest metrics indicate options traders are expecting Bitcoin and Ethereum to spike in the fourth quarter.
Implied Volatility (IV) measures the market sentiment toward the probability of changes in an asset price, and the Open Interest (OI) refers to the total number of outstanding derivatives contracts. Both metrics indicate that bullish conditions might be brewing in the fourth quarter.
Research: A fresh take on Bitcoin mining – Why using more energy can lead to abundance
The high energy consumption of Bitcoin mining has been a primary concern for many in the crypto community. Even though Bitcoin’s share in global energy consumption is currently only at 0.45%, the overall sentiment in the subject revolves around the idea of a disastrous future due to the pollution caused by Bitcoin mining.
However, when Bitcoin mining’s energy requirement is compared to Gold’s, it is evident that Gold causes more environmental trouble.
Despite this, no government considers banning gold mining. CryptoSlate analysts looked at Bitcoin mining through the eyes of economic prosperity and GDP and revealed that it is not an environmental disaster, as the current sentiment indicates. Instead, it could evolve into an industry and produce a highly skilled workforce, record significant income increases and improve surrounding infrastructure.
News from around the Cryptoverse
Hong Kong is looking to legalize crypto ETFs
According to Financial Times, Hong Kong’s financial watchdog is looking to launch exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for retail investors. It will only allow ETFs that initially invest in Bitcoin futures and will be expanded to other assets in the following stages.
Society Pass launches crypto payments feature
Society Pass Incorporated announced that it inked a partnership deal with Canada-based crypto payment company CoinSmart Financial to begin offering crypto payment features.
Crypto Market
In the last 24 hours, Bitcoin (BTC) decreased by -1.83% to fall $20,814, while Ethereum (ETH) also fell by -0.64% to trade at $1,600.
Biggest Gainers (24h)
Biggest Losers (24h)
As per the latest reports, crypto exchange FTX had a crazy year in 2021 garnering more than a billion dollars in revenue. On Saturday, August 20, CNBC got access to the internal documents of the company giving them a glimpse into the company’s audited financials.
As per the CNBC report, FTX’s revenue soared more than 1000% last year from $89 million to $1.02 billion. FTX’s operating income in 2021 jumped to $272 million, up from $14 million a year ago in 2020. Similarly, the company’s net income stood at $388 million last year, a massive surge from $17 million a year before.
This year in 2022, crypto exchange FTX has been on a strong acquisition spree. It is also making investments into crypto businesses that have been facing the heat of the crypto winter. As per sources familiar with the matter, FTX is on track to clock $1.1 billion in revenue in 2022. The CNBC report notes:
FTX had roughly $2.5 billion in cash at the end of last year and 27% profit margins, according to the documents. Margins were closer to 50% if advertising and “related party” expenses are stripped out.
Earlier this year in January, FTX had secured $400 million in funding from VC giants like Tiger Global and SoftBank taking the company valuation to more than $32 billion.
Taking ON The Giants
Founded just three years back by Sam Bankman-Fried, crypto exchange is competing with giants like Coinbase and Binance. In order to compete, the company has been building its own fleet of crypto subsidiaries.
Amid a very strong balance sheet, FTX has been looking to buy some of the distressed assets recently. As a result, the crypto exchange has poured several million dollars into different crypto firms. Last month in July 2022, FTX signed a deal to buy crypto lender BlockFi. It was also in discussions to acquire South Korean exchange Bithumb. Besides, it has been acquiring more stake in several smaller crypto firms spread across multiple countries.
In the U.S, the crypto exchange operates under its parent firm, West Realm Shires Inc. Last year in 2021, FTX U.S. contributed less than 5% of its total revenue.
The presented content may include the personal opinion of the author and is subject to market condition. Do your market research before investing in cryptocurrencies. The author or the publication does not hold any responsibility for your personal financial loss.
Troubled crypto lender Voyager Digital has outrightly rejected to a buyout offer from FTX and its subsidiary Alameda Research calling it a ‘low-ball bid’.
Last Friday, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried proposed a restructuring deal to FTX. Under the proposed plan, Bankman-Fried’s trading firm Alameda Research would buy Voyager’s digital assets and digital-assets loans in cash market value. However, this would be exempting loans to embattled hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC).
In return, FTX would offer Voyager customers to receive their part of claims by opening an FTX account. However, customers who do not wish to sign up with FTX can continue to retain all of their rights and claims in the bankruptcy proceedings. But these customers would get early access to distribution of their claims through FTX.
On Sunday, July 24, Voyager lawyers submitted a response to the bid wherein they noted:
“The AlamedaFTX proposal is nothing more than a liquidation of cryptocurrency on a basis that advantages AlamedaFTX. It’s a low-ball bid dressed up as a white knight rescue”.
Voyager will entertain any “serious proposal” made under the bidding procedures, but the bid from FTX and Alameda was “designed to generate publicity for itself rather than value for Voyager’s customers”.
Voyager Reserves All Rights, Said the Lawyers
In the court filing submitted on Sunday, Voyager Digital said that FTX’s proposal undermines a competitive process. Besides, the bid declares no value to Voyager and its intellectual property. Furthermore, it completely ignores tax consequences among other things.
The lawyers further added that Voyager receives all rights and remedies against FTX and Alameda for the “clear and intentional subversion of the bankruptcy process and the damages that may be suffered by customers and other creditors as a result”.
Voyager filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this month. FTX has shown keen interest in getting its hands at Voyager’s assets.
The presented content may include the personal opinion of the author and is subject to market condition. Do your market research before investing in cryptocurrencies. The author or the publication does not hold any responsibility for your personal financial loss.
The meme-inspired cryptocurrency Shiba Inu ($SHIB) has overtaken the native cryptocurrency of the FTX exchange, $FTT, as the second-largest holding the largest Ethereum whales have in their portfolios, behind $ETH itself only.
According to data shared by whale monitoring resource WhaleStats, the largest Ethereum whales have been adding SHIB to their holdings over time to the point they now hold over $1.4 billion worth of the meme-inspired cryptocurrency, while holding $1.36 billion worth of FTT.
The top Ethereum whale on the network, as reported by Benzinga, holds 35 trillion SHIB worth nearly $984 million, with the meme-inspired cryptocurrency being the fourth most valuable token on its wallet. The token represents around 11% of the wallet’s total value.
As CryptoGlobe reported, Ethereum whales have been loading up on SHIB as plans to burn the meme-inspired cryptocurrency’s supply through various initiatives have been growing. Steven Cooper, CEO of cryptocurrency entertainment firm Bigger Entertainment, has clarified in a tweet that the company is looking to support the community of the meme-inspired cryptocurrency in burning 10% of its supply.
Bigger Entertainment is one of nine businesses that have committed to using part of their profits to burn SHIB and reduce the cryptocurrency’s circulating supply. Currently, only 59% of Shiba Inu’s initial supply was still in circulation, as well over 410 trillion SHIB has been burned since the cryptocurrency was launched.
The meme-inspired cryptocurrency has also recently been added to leading digital payments platform Wirex, which has over 4.5 million users and allows them to spend dozens of currencies at more than 80 million locations worldwide.
Wirex touts it created the world’s first cryptocurrency-enabled payments card in 2015. Earlier this year it expanded to the United States and added numerous other cryptocurrencies including Polygon ($MATIC), Binance’s $BNB, Avalanche ($AVAX), and Fantom ($FTM).
DISCLAIMER
The views and opinions expressed by the author, or any people mentioned in this article, are for informational purposes only, and they do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice. Investing in or trading cryptoassets comes with a risk of financial loss.
IMAGE CREDIT
Featured image via Pixabay