Crypto carnage: Why trading platform FTX’s near collapse is so much trouble for bitcoin, ether – and the entire industry

  • 📰 globeandmail
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 72 sec. here
  • 3 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 32%
  • Publisher: 92%

United States News News

United States United States Latest News,United States United States Headlines

Little is known about FTX’s financial woes, and in an information vacuum, the crypto sector is particularly vulnerable because it’s so lightly regulated

exchange once seen as a trustworthy oasis in a sketchy industry, is ricocheting through the crypto sector at alarming speed, sending the prices of multiple cryptocurrencies plummeting and raising serious doubts about the business model for all crypto assets.

Until Tuesday, when FTX announced the shocking news it had signed a letter of intent with Binance for a potential takeover, Mr. Bankman-Fried was often hailed as the industry’s golden boy – someone who got extraordinarily rich off crypto and was willing to play nice with lawmakers in Washington. The problem now is that it’s much harder to know who can be trusted. The whole crypto sector was already wobbling, with two-thirds of its value, or US$2-trillion, evaporating in six months earlier this year. Now with the latest liquidity crunch – something that was never supposed to happen to FTX – the fallout is worsening by the hour.

Some of the industry’s biggest supporters are trying to shore up confidence. Late Monday, Som Seif, the founder of Purpose Investments, which launched Canada’s first Bitcoin ETF, tried to spin this as a positive for the crypto sector in the long run. “Because the crypto industry is so non-transparent,” said Dennis Kelleher, CEO at Better Markets, a lobby group in Washington, “it’s harder to know how deep the crypto collapse will be.”

Mr. Bankman-Fried also runs a separate crypto company, Alameda Research. No one seems to know if there was co-mingling of funds between FTX and Alameda, but the value of FTT plummeted over the weekend and it might have wiped out FTX’s safety buffer – similar to how a housing crash can wipe out the collateral on a home-equity loan.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.

Actually it reinforces the decentralized finance hypothesis.

Can't taper a ponzi.

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 5. in US

United States United States Latest News, United States United States Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Volatility spikes in the crypto market as Binance looks to acquire FTXThe crypto market went for an early morning plunge as BTC briefly dipped below $20,000 amid rumors of insolvency at the crypto exchange FTX. ⚡️
Source: KitcoNewsNOW - 🏆 13. / 78 Read more »