After briefly falling to a two-year low in the wake of the FTX collapse, Bitcoin marginally increased on Tuesday, but its decline was prolonged by Solana’s -6.5% sol.
To $1,124, ether is up 2.2% over the time frame. With an 8.4% increase on the day, Polygon’s MATICMATIC -3.9%, which is one of the top 10 largest cryptocurrencies, is leading gains. Sam Bankman-Fried’s infamously promoted Solana blockchain token, Sol, is down 3%. Since reaching an all-time high of $259 almost exactly one year ago, the cryptocurrency’s value has decreased by 95%.
Crypto’s total market value stands at $830.9 billion, up 1.3% since yesterday, but down from $1.06 trillion on November 4, before news of the troubles at FTX began to circulate widely.
“The crypto market has taken a hiatus after the extreme volatility and trading volumes amidst the FTX collapse, evident by the seven-day average trading volume in bitcoin plunging to a 3-month low,” crypto analytics firm Arcane Research said in a Tuesday research note. “As bitcoin recovers from a meltdown, activity typically declines.”
The FTX crisis’ effects are still being felt. Eqonex Group, a financial services company with a Nasdaq listing, informed shareholders on Monday that it had filed for judicial management with the High Court of Singapore after failing to fulfill commitments and secure liquidity financing. On paper submitted to the U.S. Diginex and Eqonex Capital, which have offices in Singapore and Hong Kong respectively, will be liquidated, according to Eqonex’s statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Eqonex was one of the first digital asset firms with an exchange to be publicly listed in the U.S. Bifinity, Binance’s payments-focused affiliate, and the company announced a strategic alliance in March, as part of which Bfinity agreed to provide a $36 million convertible loan.
Separately, according to reports, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao and a number of his deputies met with investors last week in Abu Dhabi to try and raise money for a fund that Zhao announced earlier this month to help the crypto industry recover. Potential backers include organizations connected to Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, the United Arab Emirates’ national security adviser. A Binance spokesperson told Bloomberg that Zhao’s meetings in Abu Dhabi “were all focused on general global regulatory matters,––specifically how Middle Eastern regulators could lead the globe by exploring more aggressive proof of custody requirements for crypto exchanges.”
Meanwhile, Ark Invest, the investment firm helmed by high-profile stock picker Cathie Wood, has doubled down on the struggling sector. According to Ark’s daily transaction reports, three of the firm’s funds, including its flagship Ark Innovation ETF, have invested $62.7 million in shares of exchange Coinbase, crypto bank Silvergate and the Grayscale BitcoinBTC -1.2% Since November 11, when FTX and associated entities filed for bankruptcy, trust.
The market will be choppy for at least the ensuing six months, predicts Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at cryptocurrency asset manager Bitwise. “I actually think crypto assets have held up remarkably well, considering the level of headline risk and trust impairment that we’ve seen,” Hougan says. “However, I do believe there will be another six to twelve months of ambiguity before investors feel comfortable reentering the water.”
