Strengths
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the best performer for the week was Axie Infinity, rising 16.39%.
- Goldman Sachs Group plans to invest tens of millions of dollars in crypto firms, citing an interview with Mathew McDermott, global head of digital assets at the company. The bank plans to buy or invest in crypto firms after the collapse of FTX hurt investors' interest and valuations, writes Bloomberg.
- Crypto exchange Binance Holdings on Wednesday released its first proof of reserves, based on a snapshot review by accounting. The report shows the exchange having sufficient crypto assets to balance its total platform liabilities, writes Bloomberg. It captures a glimpse of Binance's Bitcoin holdings at a specific moment in time to reassure customers that its assets and liabilities match.
Weaknesses
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the worst performer for the week was 1inch Network, down 11.82%.
- Circle Internet Financial, the issuer of the cryptocurrency USDC stablecoin, said its planned merger with special purpose acquisition company Concord Acquisition Corp. has been terminated. Under the terms of Concord's amended and restated certificate of incorporation, Concord has until December 10 to consummate a business combination, writes Bloomberg.
- Crypto bank Silvergate Capital Corp was asked by three U.S. Senators to release all records related to transfer of funds for the collapsed FTX empire of Sam Bankman-Fried. Shares of La Jolla, a California-based bank, fell as much as 8%. The slide extends Silvergate's losses for the year to more than 84% and has it trading at a fresh 52-week low, writes Bloomberg.
Opportunities
- Coinbase Global Inc. waived fees for converting Tether Holdings stablecoin USDT for the token Coinbase backs, reports Bloomberg, as competition heats up among the three biggest issuers of such digital assets. In a blog post on Friday, Coinbase sought to portray stablecoin USDC as a safer asset amid the turmoil unleashed by the collapse of crypto exchange FTX as month ago.
- The European Union proposed new rules on Thursday to combat tax fraud and evasion in the crypto sector by requiring all digital asset service providers to report transactions involving customers residing in the bloc. The initiative by the EU's executive arm, part of a package to increase the transparency in the tax system, aims to ensure that the bloc's residents pay taxes on gains from trading or investing in crypto assets, writes Bloomberg.
- FTX's new CEO and bankruptcy lawyers met with Manhattan federal prosecutors investigating the cryptocurrency exchange's collapse and allegations that it misused billions of dollars in customer funds. John J. Ray met this week with the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, writes Bloomberg.
Threats
- Digital assets are already a year into one of the industry's worst slumps, but judging from recent announcements of steep headcount reduction, crypto executives seem to be bracing for more pain. Crypto exchanges Bybit and Swyftx over the past two days said they're laying off 30% and 35% of their staff, respectively. The announcements came less than a week after bigger rival Kraken unveiled a similar workforce scrapping, writes Bloomberg.
- Orthogonal Trading said in a tweet on Tuesday that it had been “severely impacted by the collapse of FTX and associated trading activities” making it unable to repay on a $10 million crypto loan, reports Bloomberg. That prompted the entity that runs the lending pool on DeFi protocol Maple to issue a notice of default for all the fund's active borrowings.
- Amber Group, one of Asia's leading crypto platforms, has continued to lay off staff and put a funding round on hold amid turmoil in the digital-asset sector following the bankruptcy of the FTX exchange. The job cuts at the Singapore-based company, whose backer includes Temasek Holdings and Sequoi China, according to an article published by Bloomberg.
