As top names in the crypto-sphere continue to warn about the cascading effects of the FTX contagion, the wider market continues its nervous push ahead. Although the turmoil continues to dominate market perception, certain bulls have been activated in light of the anticipation of a thanksgiving rally. Similarly, comments by the federal reserve, regarding a slowing down of interest hikes, have been received quite positively. BTC saw an upward climb of over 8%, after hitting a new yearly low of $15,480.
Highlights of the week
After moving to the backseat, crypto-market bulls have been attempting a rally once again, following the disclosure by Coinbase, that it continues to hold BTC worth almost $40 billion. Both Ethereum and Bitcoin have been climbing throughout the day, as central exchanges come under the spotlight of rigorous scrutiny.
The republican congressman from Minnesota, Tom Emmer, recently delivered scathing comments relating to the FTX failure and laid the blame for the fiasco solely on centralized finance. He demanded an explanation for the inaction of the Securities and Exchanges Commission and personally named the SEC chairman as sharing in on the responsibility of the fiasco.
According to a report made public yesterday, analysis indicates that the countries most severely impacted by the FTX crypto-meltdown were Japan, Singapore, and South Korea. This deduction is on the basis of the number of unique users visiting the FTX website. South Korean users in particular represented over 6% of the total online traffic on the FTX platform.
In a recent joint operation by law enforcement agents in US and Estonia, two high-profile crypto-scammers face arrest. The two Estonian nationals ran a fake virtual bank and obtained over $575 million through a sophisticated and fraudulent scheme. Many had called the crime as being the biggest fraud in Estonia’s history.
The state of New York, recently passed an unprecedented moratorium, placing restrictions on fossil-fuel-based cryptocurrency mining. The move, which already becomes a part of the law, targets PoW fossil-fuel mining and denies businesses from extending or renewing their operational permits for the next two years. This moratorium is likely to significantly impact the dynamics of the crypto-realm.
Crypto fear & greed index
Sentiment around cryptocurrency continues to tread at deadly lows, without much improvement, ever since the FTX contagion had come to everyone’s attention. The crypto fear and greed index puts sentiment at the 20-mark, indicating extreme fear of a severe degree. This index figure is the lowest in the market in over four months and indicates the hesitance and risk aversion that will likely continue to influence market forces in the coming days and weeks.
Apart from brief instances, sentiment observed across most of 2022 remained in the fear category. This was largely due to macroeconomic factors, such as inflation and subsequent interest rate hikes. Just as market sentiment appeared to arrive on the verge of a recovery, the FTX fiasco sent it plummeting down to its present levels.
