ProBit Bits — ProBit Global’s Weekly Blockchain Bits Vol. 38

Bitcoin Recovers from FTX Collapse Losses, Rallies

The world’s top cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, rallied 21.9% over the past week to trade at over US$21,000 while Ether was up 18.1%, to reach US$1,577. Another major altcoin that made a surprising move is Solana (SOL). According to CoinGecko’s data, the 11th largest digital asset by market capitalization rallied 39.5% over the same period.

Attributed to the eventual disappearance of investors’ anxieties as caused by the FTX exchange collapse, and the emerging shift towards renewed investor confidence and interest in Bitcoin, the crypto market seems to be on a recovery path coinciding with the release of December’s U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI), of +6.5% year on year.

US Seizes Robinhood Assets Linked to FTX

Still on FTX, last week saw the U.S. Department of Justice seize 55,273,469 shares of the stock of Robinhood Markets Inc. and $20,746,713.67 linked to the troubled exchange’s former founder, Samuel Bankman-Fried (SBF) and co-founder Gary Wang.

Worth about $456 million at the announcement day’s closing price, the seized assets were deemed, among other things, to constitute property involved in violations of money laundering and/or the proceeds of wire fraud.

SBF was charged on December 9, 2022, by a grand jury in the Southern District of New York with an eight-count indictment, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and commit campaign finance violations. He allegedly misappropriated billions of dollars of customer funds deposited onto FTX.

Rays of Hope for Some FTX Investors

Though still short of what customers are owed in total, more than $5 billion has been reportedly recovered in different assets, a bankruptcy attorney said during a hearing last week.

Landis Rath & Cobb attorney, Adam Landis, said the sum, which amounts to approximately 40% of FTX’s total liabilities — which range from between $10 billion and $13 billion — does not include another $425 million in crypto held by the Bahamas.

With the development comes the hope that some FTX creditors could recover part of their investments in the failed exchange. FTX’s new leadership had on Dec. 20, 2022, claimed it could only find just over $1 billion.

Following Bitfinex, Robinhood Announces Plan to Delist BSV

Robinhood, the American financial services company, released a statement that it has decided to end support for Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV). The company notes that the decision, which would take effect from January 25, comes after its regular review of the crypto assets it offers on its platform. They expect BSV holders to act on the notice as any BSV still in their Robinhood Crypto account after the deadline “will be sold for market value and the proceeds will be credited to your Robinhood buying power.” Digital currency exchange Bitfinex delisted BSV in December 2022. The exchange notes that its decision was made “as a result of our continued monitoring of all listed projects and review of their listing qualifications.”

Top Miner Suggests What 2014 and 2018 Bear Markets Say About Current Market

Last week, the CEO of BTC.TOP mining, Jiang Zhuoer, gave an optimistic estimate of what the 2014 and 2018 bear markets could be suggesting about the current bear market.

The crypto market pundit says to expect an 8-month period of sideways in Bitcoin price movement at the bottom should the market be similar to 2014, or sideways for two months before the next round of bull market begins if similar to 2018.

He theorized that the three bear markets took a similar amount of time from the previous BTC all-time high (ATH) to the bottom. He notes that based on market sentiment observations, their indicators show that the market is in its last bear market bottom sideways period.

First Crypto Insider Trader Bags Jail Term

It is the first for a defendant to admit guilt in an insider trading case involving the cryptocurrency markets (see ProBit Bits Vol. 22 for more). Now, Nikhil Wahi has been sentenced to 10 months in prison for using misappropriated information about crypto asset listings on Coinbase as made available by his brother, Ishan Wahi, a former product manager at the crypto exchange.

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, notes that the sentence “makes clear that the cryptocurrency markets are not lawless”. He added that Wahi’s case shows that there “are real consequences to illegal insider trading, wherever and whenever it occurs.”

First Bitcoin, Ether Futures ETF in Asia List in Hong Kong

Asia’s first Bitcoin and Ether futures successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. CSOP Bitcoin Futures ETF and CSOP Ether Futures ETF are both listed to capture the performance of the two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap.

“Bitcoin and Ether are the most representative crypto assets in the current market taking up total market cap of 39% and 17% respectively,” the second largest ETF issuer in Hong Kong noted in a statement. It adds that with the global virtual asset market cap reaching a record high of US$3 trillion in November 2021, comprising 10,000+ types of cryptos and 600+ exchanges, virtual asset “has become an asset class too big to ignore, and with great potential to grow further.”