Crypto World Analysis

2022-11-14 08:31:02 Galois Capital admits over 50% of its capital was locked up in FTX

The crypto hedge fund Galois Capital had earlier this year gained some renown for predicting the Terra crash — whose stablecoin ecosystem $60 billion collapse became the catalyst for the current bear market. At the mercy of the bankruptcy process, Galois – and all other investors in FTX – may have to wait a while before being able to access their funds.

Galois Capital had admitted on the record that they did in fact have “significant funds stuck on FTX” but that they had not employed “any Bahamian method to move funds out.” Zhou addressed Galois investors in a letter stating that it may that “a few years” before recovery of funds could begin. Due to FTX not backing held user funds on a 1:1 basis, the FTX cannot facilitate any withdrawal requests without rescue capital bailout. Galois is now contemplating whether to continue normal operations.

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2022-11-13 10:41:02 FTX collapse timeline: Six days that rocked the crypto industry

The past week may well be the most tumultuous the crypto world has seen yet. In less than seven days, FTX went from industry darling to bankruptcy protection, with its crashing native token FTT spurring a liquidity crisis. Here’s a timeline of how the dramatic events unfolded. Time stamps are based on when The Block published articles and are in Eastern Standard Time.

The drama started unfolding with a Nov. 2 CoinDesk report about concerning aspects of Alameda Research’s balance sheet. On Nov. 6, Binance said it would move to sell its native FTX tokens. On the defense, Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison responded that the leaked balance sheet circulating was not comprehensive. Signs of an FTX liquidity crunch started emerging early, when on-chain data pointed to FTX apparently pausing its withdrawal requests.

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2022-11-12 09:31:02 FTX US employees attempt to sell assets in CEO’s absence: Bloomberg

Employees working for the U.S. arm of FTX's cryptocurrency exchange business are trying to sell company assets, in some cases without CEO Sam Bankman-Fried's “participation,” according to Bloomberg News, which cited two people familiar with the matter.

FTX has descended into chaos in recent days after a failed takeover by rival Binance, the embattled crypto CEO has stressed that the American branch of FTX is separate from the global brand and in good financial health. "FTX US, the US based exchange that accepts Americans, was not financially impacted by this shitshow. It's 100% liquid. Every user could fully withdraw (modulo gas fees etc).

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2022-11-11 11:52:03 FTX tells investors bankruptcy is likely without fresh cash: Bloomberg

FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried told investors that the crypto exchange would need to file for bankruptcy without a cash injection, Bloomberg News reported, citing a person with direct knowledge of the situation. Before Binance announced that it would drop its bid to take over the rival exchange, Bankman-Fried had told the investors that it faced.

FTX was attempting to raise capital in the form of debt, equity, or a combination of both. Bankman-Fried had told investors in a conference call Wednesday afternoon that Binance would not walk away from the deal just about an hour before it finally backed out, the report said. Bankman-Fried had told the investors that it faced a shortfall of up to $8 billion, Bloomberg cited the person as saying.

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2022-11-10 14:22:04 Crypto trading firm Cumberland says it had virtually no exposure to FTX

FTX revealed that it had reached a breaking point on Nov. 8, when it announced a possible acquisition by rival Binance. This has led to speculation as to what companies might be affected — either through money held on FTX or through agreements or loans with the exchange.

Crypto trading company Cumberland said it had virtually no exposure to crypto exchange FTX, which has collapsed amid a liquidity crisis. "While we had virtually no exposure to FTX and our operational controls enabled us to provide deep liquidity to a market in search of it, the exchange consolidation we saw was unfathomable 60 hours ago," said Cumberland on Twitter. It added that it's focused on serving its counterparties in this volatile market.

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2022-11-09 10:21:03 Binance's CZ says he's building, not fighting amid FTX tensions

Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao said he's surprised by reactions to the weekend announcement that his firm would start selling off holdings of FTX's FTT token."Little did I know it was going to be 'the straw that broke the camel’s back,'' he wrote on Twitter. "The fact that it sparked such levels of 'discussions' was surprising."

With tensions between Binance and FTX simmering, CZ said he's focused on "building, not fighting.". FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has said his exchange is "fine," with a competitor "trying to go after us with false rumors.". The price of FTX's native token FTT showed some signs of resilience, trading in the green earlier Monday before declining .7% to $22.11 at 4:20 pm EST, according to TradingView.

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2022-11-08 09:45:01 Ethereum supply concentration in smart contracts hits all time high

The amount of Ethereum’s supply concentrated in smart contracts has hit an all-time high post-merge. Smart contracts now create 0.45% of all Ethereum behind staked Ethereum at 0.57% and Exchange balances at 0.17%.The chart below presents an area view of some of the largest concentrations of the Ethereum supply.

The data showcases where new Ethereum is being distributed, thus giving insight into network activity for new coins. Supply concentration on exchanges has declined since mid-2020, while smart contracts and staking have increased since late 2020. After the ICO launch of Ethereum in 2014, the total circulating supply of Ethereum was 72 million ETH. At the time of The Merge, it had reached 120,534,150 ETH and has since declined by around 10,000 ETH. The circulating supply hit a post-merge low on Oct. 27.

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2022-11-07 08:43:02 Fireblocks Head of Web3: Traditional finance is diving deeper into crypto

Fireblocks custodies funds on behalf of more than 1,500 financial institutions and enables them to interact with blockchains and crypto services. These companies, especially the more traditional ones, start with custody services and slowly move into more crypto-native interactions.

Some of these traditional finance firms and banks have started running their own blockchain validators — nodes that keep blockchains running — because their pre-existing infrastructure is suitable for doing so. These banks have a lot of servers that are designed to have good uptime, meaning that they’re well suited for running validators, Amsel said. The Fireblocks service also allows the companies to custody their tokens with Fireblocks.

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2022-11-06 12:19:03 Standard Chartered invests in JPMorgan blockchain platform

Multinational investment bank Standard Chartered announced a financial commitment to JP Morgan-backed blockchain protocol, Partior. With the investment, Partior will gain support from the financial institution to enhance its international outreach. This development will allow Partior to broaden its currency offerings beyond the first slate of eight global currencies.

Additionally, SC Ventures, a Standard Chartered division specializing in innovations and ventures, announced in July that it would launch a crypto brokerage and exchange platform for institutions in the UK and Europe. In May 2019, JP Morgan rolled out the first US bank-backed cryptocurrency, JPM Coin, to transform the payments business. Additionally, as part of the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Project Guardian, the firm has executed the first live trade on the public blockchain, Polygon.

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2022-11-05 11:43:04 Circle to put a portion of USDC reserves into new BlackRock fund

Circle, the issuer of the stablecoin USDC, set up a new fund with BlackRock to help manage the stablecoin's reserves. Circle will place a portion of USDC reserves into the Circle Reserve Fund, a new money market vehicle managed by BlackRock Advisors. The portfolio will consist of cash and short-dated U.S. Treasuries, the company said. This new fund will only be open to Circle.

The company said it will use proceeds from maturing holdings to purchase new Treasuries by the fund, and it expects to be fully transitioned by the end of the first quarter of next year. The new fund will be held in custody by Bank of New York Mellon, which already serves as the custodian for the Treasuries that currently make up the USDC reserve. USDC reserves are currently $44.1 billion, which is split between $8.4 billion in cash and $35.7 billion in short-term Treasuries, according to Circle's weekly reserve breakdown.

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