Hello folks. It is election day in the U.S., and that was going to be my main focus today, up until about 11:05 a.m. ET anyway. That’s the point when Sam Bankman-Fried announced that his company FTX would enter a “transaction” with Binance, which Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao later clarified was a letter of intent for Binance to acquire FTX. Source
Bitcoin was recently trading at about $18,400, a more than 11% decline over the last 24 hours. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization last fell below $19,000 on Oct. 21. Ether was recently changing hands a little above $1,300, off more than 16% from Monday, same time. Other major altcoins sank by double digits to cap a turbulent day that saw crypto markets sink immediately following the Binance/FTX announcement, rise hopefully and then sink again as investors absorbed the rapid decline of one of the crypto industry’s leading lights. Original
Following the liquidity crisis and acquisition of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said his exchange will soon start a Proof-of-Reserves audit system to allow verification of its digital asset holdings. In a Nov. 8 Twitter post, Zhao pledged to implement a Proof-of-Reserve mechanism at Binance to provide “full transparency” through the use of Merkle Trees — a data structure used to encode blockchain data more efficiently and securely. All crypto exchanges should do merkle-tree proof-of-reserves. Banks run on fractional reserves. Crypto exchanges should not.@Binance will start to do…
Nansen’s on-chain metrics suggest several reasons why FTX decided to sell itself to Binance. Source
The huge changes in the crypto exchange market on Nov. 8 led to equally massive waves of commentary. The UpOnlyTV channel on Twitch was a beneficiary of this activity with Do Kwon and Martin Shkreli showing up simultaneously to talk about the deal between Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) and FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) for the purchase of FTX. Shkreli, sometimes referred to as the “Pharma Bro” for his role in that industry before his conviction for securities fraud, had doubts the Binance-FTX deal would work out. “I think…
Among the biggest names in which FTX Ventures invested were Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs, USDC stablecoin issuer Circle, layer 1 blockchains Near Protocol and Sui, crypto lender BlockFi and two different funding rounds for the Aptos blockchain, according to crypto data analytics firm Cryptorank. The exact number of investments by FTX Ventures are unknown. Source
Recently, the crypto space has been facing an unexpected display between two prominent crypto exchanges, Binance and FTX. The CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), announced that the exchange would liquidate all FTT tokens in its holdings. Naturally, this news created a negative impact on FTX and its token. Further, the entire crypto market has been thrown into the red as most crypto assets are losing value. The crash in the price of FTT is also influenced by a massive depreciating trend on several other tokens. FTX Token (FTT) Falls…
Customers’ crypto withdrawals that were previously backlogged have been halted altogether, according to announcements from the official FTX Support Telegram group. Source
Broader crypto markets, which mounted a short-lived recovery after the bailout announcement, quickly lost steam and turned sharply lower. The CoinDesk Market Index (CMI), which tracks 162 cryptocurrencies, fell 8% in the last 24 hours. Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, tumbled to $17,114 on the Bitstamp exchange, a 23-month low. The BTC price recovered somewhat to $18,400 but was still down 12% on the day. Source
The company said it has minimal exposure to struggling crypto exchange FTX, with just $15 million on deposit there to facilitate business operations and customer trades. Coinbase further said it has no exposure to FTX’s token FTT – which has plunged about 80% today – and no exposure to FTX sister company Alameda Research. Source