Popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin fell more than 8 percent in a matter of hours on Thursday, hitting a two-month low of $25,314. Bitcoin’s fall put it on course for its worst week since November last year, while also triggering a collapse in the prices of all other cryptocurrencies and leading to more than $1 billion in liquidations.
The plunge in prices of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies might have been fueled by the possibility of high-interest rates for a prolonged period and thin crypto trading, reported Bloomberg.
FRNT Finacial’s Stephane Oullette while speaking to Bloomberg noted that every decline in Bitcoin this year has been followed by a period of recovery. “The next few days should give more clues to whether the selloff will continue and we’ll see a reversal of this year’s trend,” Oullette noted.
He added that the signs that Bitcoin is making a divergence from this year’s trends if the cryptocurrency goes below the $25,000 mark. On the other hand, he added that if Bitcoin pushed past the $30,000 mark it could even go past this year’s high of $31,818.
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Why are the Bitcoin prices plunging?
Head of research at Enigma Securities Joseph Edwards while speaking to Reuters attributed the fall in Bitcoin prices to low volatility and a lack of enthusiasm from retail investors.
Meanwhile, speaking to Bloomberg, Riyad Carey, research assistant at blockchain data firm Kaiko, noted that this week’s drop in cryptocurrency prices could be due to the market’s exposure to larger trades, noting that the past four months have seen the lowest average daily volume of crypto transactions since 2020.
Reportedly, the cryptocurrency market is too reliant on narratives that can prop up the prices. A recent report by the Wall Street Journal noting that Elon Musk’s SpaceX had sold its Bitcoin holdings after writing down the value by $373 million might have played a major part in worsening the crash on Thursday.
(With inputs from agencies)
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Coinbase On Following MicroStrategy's Bitcoin Playbook: Looking For 'Opportunities,' Says CFO, But Highlights Key Difference Between The Two Companies – Coinbase Glb (NASDAQ:COIN)
Coinbase Global Inc.COIN said it wants to expand its cryptocurrency investment portfolio and emphasized that assets held on its books, including Bitcoin BTC/USD, are intended to be retained for the long term
What Happened: During the company’s third-quarter 2024 earnings call, the management was asked whether they would pursue a reserve strategy akin to MicroStrategy, a Bitcoin investment company, with over $18 billion worth of the asset on its balance sheet.
Alesia Haas, the Chief Financial Officer, informed that the company does maintain a cryptocurrency investment portfolio on its balance sheet, the fair market value of which was about $1.3 billion at the end of the third quarter. This amounted to nearly a quarter of Coinbase’s total cash balance.
“You can see more detail in our filings, but we hold Bitcoin in addition to Ethereum and a mix of other cryptocurrency assets. These are intended to be long-term investments,” Haas added.
The CFO clarified that Coinbase functions as an operating company rather than an investment company and needed cash on hand for various capital requirements. Having said that, the firm looked for “opportunities” to expand its operations and broaden its cryptocurrency holdings in the future.
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See Also: Robinhood Crypto Volumes Double in Q3; October Number Set To Exceed Quarterly-Average At $5B, Says CFO
Why It Matters: Coinbase reported Q3 revenue of $1.21 billion after the market close on Wednesday, missing the Street consensus estimate of $1.26 billion. Additionally, earnings came in at 28 cents per share, lower than analysts’ estimate of 42 cents per share.
The company’s board authorized its first stock buyback program, providing for the repurchase of up to $1 billion of its outstanding Class A common stock without expiration.
Price Action: Coinbase stock plunged 4.84% in after-hours trading, after closing down 3.61% to $211.74 during Tuesday’s regular session.
Image via Flickr/ Ivan Radic
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Former cryptocurrency executive Nishad Singh, who once shared a $35m Bahamas penthouse with FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, has been spared prison time by a judge for his role in the theft by his imprisoned former boss of about $8bn in customer funds from the now-bankrupt exchange.
During a hearing in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday, United States District Judge Lewis Kaplan imposed no prison time, but ordered three years of supervised release. Kaplan credited Singh for cooperating with prosecutors and coming clean about his actions in what they have called one of the biggest financial frauds in US history.
Singh, who had pleaded guilty to six felony counts of fraud and conspiracy, testified last year as a prosecution witness in the trial that led to Bankman-Fried’s conviction on fraud and other charges. Singh, in a plea deal with prosecutors, admitted to his role in the fraud and for serving as a “straw donor” in some of Bankman-Fried’s millions of dollars in political donations.
“I am overwhelmed with remorse for the harm that I participated in and that I caused to so many innocent people,” Singh told the judge at the hearing. “I strayed so far from my values.”
Prosecutors had urged leniency for the 29-year-old Singh, FTX’s former chief engineer, in light of his cooperation. His defence lawyers recommended he serve no prison time.
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Bankman-Fried, 32, is serving a 25-year prison sentence imposed by Kaplan stemming from FTX’s November 2022 collapse.
Last month, Kaplan sentenced Caroline Ellison, Bankman-Fried’s former girlfriend and an executive at FTX’s sister hedge fund Alameda Research, to two years in prison. The judge had also praised her cooperation, but said that such assistance was not a “get out of jail free card” in a case this serious.
The judge told Singh that his involvement “was much more limited than, certainly, Bankman-Fried and Ellison.”
During the hearing, Singh said he looked up to and supported Bankman-Fried, even after coming to see him as deceptive and self-serving.
“I still have an enormous debt to society,” Singh added.
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“You did the right thing,” Kaplan told Singh. “You immediately and truthfully – as far as I can see – fully unburdened yourself to the government about wrongdoing about which you were aware and which they quite clearly were not.”
Prosecutor Nicolas Roos told the judge that Singh deserved credit for coming forward and implicating himself by describing conversations that were not otherwise documented.
“It could have been very easy for Mr Singh to have denied everything,” Roos said.
“He wanted to right a wrong or at least start to make that effort and do the right thing,” Roos added.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, centre left, is serving a 25-year prison [File: Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo]
‘A monumental crime’
Singh’s lawyer Andrew Goldstein told the judge that nearly all of the billions of dollars in customer funds were stolen before his client learned of the scheme.
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“The overwhelming majority of the conduct that made it such a monumental crime took place before Nishad ever became involved,” Goldstein said, arguing that Bankman-Fried and Ellison were responsible for the decision to steal funds from FTX customers to pay Alameda’s lenders. “That was their crime. It was not Nishad’s crime.”
Goldstein said Singh’s brother, parents and fiance, among other family members, were present in court.
A 2017 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, Singh lived with Bankman-Fried and seven other employees of FTX and its sister firm Alameda Research in a waterfront penthouse in the Bahamas, where the exchange was based.
Singh said he owned an equity stake of about 6-7 percent in FTX. He said that made him a billionaire on paper during a boom in cryptocurrency prices during the COVID pandemic. By October 2021, Bankman-Fried was worth $26bn, according to Forbes magazine, and gained prominence as a prolific donor to philanthropic causes and Democratic politicians.
Singh testified during the trial that he became suicidal as FTX unravelled in November 2022 amid a flurry of customer withdrawals. He returned to the US shortly before the exchange declared bankruptcy on November 12 of that year, and had his first meeting with federal prosecutors later that month.
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Singh testified that he confronted Bankman-Fried about an enormous shortfall of customer funds during an hourlong conversation held in September 2022 on the balcony of their penthouse. Singh said Bankman-Fried assured him he would raise more funds and cut costs.
Bankman-Fried is appealing his conviction and sentence.
Gary Wang, a third former FTX executive who cooperated with prosecutors, is scheduled to be sentenced on November 20.
Bittensor’sTAO/USD price has decreased 6.45% over the past 24 hours to $510.45, continuing its downward trend over the past week of -3.0%, moving from $526.14 to its current price.
The chart below compares the price movement and volatility for Bittensor over the past 24 hours (left) to its price movement over the past week (right). The gray bands are Bollinger Bands, measuring the volatility for both the daily and weekly price movements. The wider the bands are, or the larger the gray area is at any given moment, the larger the volatility.
The trading volume for the coin has risen 41.0% over the past week diverging from the circulating supply of the coin, which has decreased 0.05%. This brings the circulating supply to 7.38 million, which makes up an estimated 35.15% of its max supply of 21.00 million. According to our data, the current market cap ranking for TAO is #31 at $3.77 billion.
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This article was generated by Benzinga’s automated content engine and reviewed by an editor.
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