Australia, insurance, car, home, live, holidays

Genesis,which has faced a liquidity crunch after crypto exchange FTX’s bankruptcy filing this month,has spent the past several days seeking at least $USUS1 billion in fresh capital,the people said. That included talks over a potential investment from crypto exchange Binance,they said,but funding so far has failed to materialise.

Crypto lender BlockFi Inc. could be next:people with knowledge of the matter said last week that it’s preparing to file for bankruptcy within days.

“The FTX issues are really an urgent reminder of the need for regulatory clarity and a real regulatory framework for crypto,” Christian Catalini,founder of the MIT Cryptoeconomics Lab,said on Bloomberg TV.

He added that hype and speculation over the minting and trading of tokens “has generated a massive distraction from building actual products and services that reach consumers,solve actual problems.”

FTX-Ether link

Ether has underperformed Bitcoin over the past couple of sessions in part amid speculation that some of the $US663 million drained from FTX as it slid into bankruptcy is now being transferred out of the token.

The person or entity that raided FTX emerged last week as one of the world’s biggest holders of Ether,with a haul of about $US288 million.

Geneis is said to have held talks with CZ Zhao’s Binance about a possible investment to inject funding,but no deal has been reached.Credit:Bloomberg

Blockchain specialist Chainalysis said that funds taken from FTX “are on the move” and some were being shifted from Ether to Bitcoin,likely as part of an effort to “cash out.”

The heady mix of corporate failure and potential criminality atop a 72 per cent drop in a gauge of the top 100 tokens over the past year is naturally leading to all kinds of questions about the future -- or lack thereof – for digital assets and their underlying blockchain technology.

Pershing Square Capital Management founder Bill Ackman said on Twitter that crypto represents less than 2 per cent of his assets while adding that he remains positive on the sector overall,comparing its potential social impact to the telephone and the internet.

Crypto ‘amateurs’

Bitcoin was trading at about $US15,628 at 9.15am AEDT,a far cry from its November 2021 record high of almost $US69,000. It touched a two-year low of $US15,574 on November 9. Ether was hovering at about $US1082.

“We’ve got to get past this early stage of amateurs in crypto,” Bobby Lee,founder of crypto storage solution provider Ballet Global,said on Bloomberg Television. He added that Bitcoin could fall as low as $US10,000 if crypto markets are hit by more major blowups.

Bloomberg

The Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the day’s trading.Get it each weekday afternoon.