The 2022 Crypto Crash

Sep 30

Bitcoin is the largest crypto asset by market cap. Image: Shutterstock

Is Bitcoin Really Decoupling From Stocks? Experts Weigh In

There’s a wry humor in the fact that Bitcoin has at times been very closely correlated with traditional markets. Bitcoiners generally prefer that BTC not have a high correlation with traditional assets, like stocks and bonds. After all, one of the core tenets of the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization—$379 billion as of this writing, according to CoinGecko—is that it bypasses traditional finance. That’s why self-avowed Bitcoin fans, like Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss,...

Sep 29

Billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin. Image: CNBC/Twitter

Citadel's Ken Griffin: Investors Leaving Bitcoin, NFTs and Meme Stocks Is Good for Economy

People moving on from the “speculative bubble” that is crypto, NFTs, and meme stocks is a positive sign for the U.S. economy, according to Wall Street heavyweight Ken Griffin. Miami-based trading firm Citadel Securities’ founder said in a Wednesday interview with CNBC that government handouts in 2020, in response to the COVID-19 lockdowns, led to investors pumping their cash into “speculative assets” like NFTs, crypto, and meme stocks. So-called meme stocks, shares of companies that gain a fol...

Sep 26

Big firms are now buying into Bitcoin as an investment. Image: Shutterstock

Bitcoin Short Investment Funds Hit All-Time High of $172M: CoinShares

Institutional investor Bitcoin sentiment turned pessimistic on Friday as short Bitcoin inflows hit an all-time high, according to a new report from CoinShares. Short Bitcoin funds give investors exposure to derivatives, like futures and options, that bet against the price of Bitcoin. While investors can enter into those contracts directly, the CoinShares report tracks the flow of funds for exchange-traded products. By the end of last week, short Bitcoin investment products hit an all-time high...

Sep 21

Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao. Image: Decrypt

Binance CEO: Bitcoin Bear Market Is 'Healthy' for Crypto Industry Long Term

Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao thinks the Bitcoin bear market is good for crypto. In a conversation with Messari CEO Ryan Selkis at the Mainnet conference Wednesday, CZ—who connected remotely via video chat—said a four-year crypto market cycle is normal and that a bear market is healthier in the long term than a seemingly never-ending upward trend. “Price corrections are actually good,” CZ said, adding that investors shouldn’t look at token prices as signs of how the crypto market is doing. In...

Sep 1

Bitcoin and Ethereum. Image: Shutterstock

Bitcoin, Ethereum Funding Rates Remain Negative Amid Market Volatility

The funding rates for Bitcoin and Ethereum, the leading cryptocurrencies by market cap, remain negative for derivative traders, suggesting a potential short-term bull signal. The Federal Reserve’s recent interest rate hikes and plans for future tightening of policy have placed increased pressure on markets across the globe. This past Friday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated his intent to counter inflation with higher interest rates in the near future. Markets reacted sharply to...

Celsius Asks to Return Some Customer Funds in Court Filing

Bankrupt crypto lender Celsius today said in a court filing that it would seek to return some—but not all—of its customers’ funds. The company said it wanted to release nearly $50 million in digital assets belonging to customers who were a part of the “custody” program—accounts that stored crypto but did not generate returns. Celsius said in the filing that customers of the custody program owned their assets, while customers using the Celsius “earn” or “borrow” programs had invested their asse...

Aug 29

Bitcoin, Ethereum Funds Post Second-Lowest Weekly Trading Volume This Year: Report

Trading volume among institutional investors for crypto funds fell to $1 billion last week, the second-lowest all year, according to a report from crypto asset manager CoinShares. Trading activity has been low for a while now. Volumes have hovered at just above $1 billion for each of the last three weeks. That’s a 55% drop from the average trading volume for the year, and last week's dip to $1 billion makes it the second-worst week trading week so far this year, according to CoinShares. The repo...

Bitcoin, Ethereum Drop as Traditional Markets Skid into New Week

Several key cryptocurrencies fell dramatically Sunday evening as traditional markets dropped heading into a new trading week. Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), XRP, Cardano (ADA), Solana, and meme coin Dogecoin (DOGE) all saw values fall sharply within a two-hour window as the sun set on the U.S. East Coast, many logging drops of over 3% over the prior 24 hours. Bitcoin fell to $19,617 on Sunday evening, below the last dip to $19,323 seen on July 13, according to CoinGecko. The decline continued a...

Aug 26

Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve. Image: Federal Reserve.

Bitcoin Tanks After Powell Says Fed May Keep Raising Interest Rates

The price of Bitcoin took a hit this morning, falling near $20,000, after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the U.S. central bank may well keep raising interest rates. At the time of writing, the biggest cryptocurrency by market cap was trading for roughly $20,600, according to CoinGecko data—a 24-hour drop of 3.7%. Bitcoin has been battered this year following a huge market sell-off. The asset is right now 70% lower than its November 2021 all-time high of $69,044.77. The rest of th...

Aug 19

ApeCoin (APE), the Ethereum token based on the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Image: ApeCoin DAO

ApeCoin, STEPN Drop 15% as Gaming, Metaverse Tokens Plunge

It’s a bright red day across much of the crypto market as Bitcoin and Ethereum losses have sent shockwaves throughout the ecosystem. And it’s gaming and metaverse tokens that are among the biggest bleeders over the last 24 hours, including ApeCoin (APE) and STEPN (GMT). ApeCoin, the Ethereum-based token of the Bored Ape Yacht Club ecosystem, has dropped more than 15% over the last day per data from CoinMarketCap, with a total weekly plunge of 23%. APE, which will power the upcoming Otherside met...

A shiba inu is the mascot of Dogecoin. Image: Shutterstock

Dogecoin Gets Hit Hardest Among Top 10 Coins in Market Sell Off

As virtually every cryptocurrency bleeds on Friday, of the top 10 biggest digital assets, Dogecoin has been hit the hardest: the meme coin is down 14.6% in 24 hours at the time of writing, trading for $0.069327, as per CoinGecko. Dogecoin, which has a market cap of $9.2 billion, had been doing well. Only at the weekend it was one of the best performing altcoins, and touched $0.0838—20% higher than it is now. Its brief surge was likely down to the release of Dogechain, a blockchain network that...

Crypto businesses are preparing for a prolonged bear market. Image: Shutterstock

Who’s Firing—And Still Hiring—During the Bitcoin Bear Market

Editor's note: This article was first published on June 16, 2022, and last updated on August 19. Cryptocurrencies and the stock market have been hammered by deteriorating economic conditions so far this year, between a recession potentially looming, sky-high inflation and a Federal Reserve that’s poised to further cool down the economy by raising interest rates. The worsening outlook towards the economy has led companies to cut back on hiring or shrink operations in an attempt to better manage c...

Aug 17

Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky. Photo: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Web Summit via Sportsfile

Canadian Pension Fund Takes $150M Hit From Celsius Investment

CDPQ, one of Canada’s largest pension managers, has written off its $150 million investment in bankrupt crypto lender Celsius Network. “We knew there were challenges in regards to [crypto assets], but perhaps we underestimated those challenges,” Charles Edmond, CEO of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) said on Wednesday. CDPQ reported a $26 billion loss for the first half of the year, which amounts to a return of -7.9%, according to a press release from the firm. When CDPQ announced...

Crypto Crime Falls 15% Along With Bear Market: Chainalysis

Illicit activity involving cryptocurrency is down 15% in volume so far this year, according to a new report from blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis. This compares to a 36% decline in legitimate transactions. “If we dig into specific forms of cryptocurrency-based crime, we find that some have actually increased in 2022, while others have declined more than the market overall,” the firm reports. According to Chainalysis, total scam revenue for 2022 is 65% lower than it was through the end of...

Aug 16

Second Layoff Round at Crypto.com Worse than June Cuts: Sources

In June, Singapore-based crypto exchange Crypto.com laid off 260 employees, or 5% of its workforce, citing the crypto bear market. Remaining employees were reportedly told at the time that those cuts were the end of the bloodletting. “They lied,” a source inside Crypto.com now tells Decrypt. On a quarterly "all hands" call last Friday, the company informed employees of additional layoffs. The source, a Crypto.com employee in a managerial role whose identity has been confirmed by Decrypt, spoke...

Aug 15

Closing time for another Bitcoin provider. Image: Shutterstock

Nasdaq-Listed Eqonex Shuts Down Crypto Exchange Due to Low Volume, 'Intense Competition'

Publicly traded blockchain services company Eqonex Limited (EQOS) announced on Monday that it will shut down its cryptocurrency exchange operations, citing falling trading volume, “intense market competition, and low margins.” The exchange will close on August 22. That gives customers one week to close their derivatives trading positions, after which all trading on the platform will cease. The exchange’s customers will also be given until 8:00 a.m. UST on September 14 to withdraw their crypto as...

Aug 10

Ripple is a remittance network and settlement system. Image: Shutterstock

Ripple Is Considering Buying Bankrupt Crypto Lender Celsius’ Assets: Report

Ripple Labs—the blockchain payments company behind XRP—may be interested in purchasing assets belonging to the insolvent crypto lending company Celsius. A company spokesperson told Reuters that Ripple is “interested in learning about Celsius and its assets, and whether any could be relevant to our business.” When asked whether Ripple planned to wholly acquire Celsius, the spokesperson declined to say. CEL, the native utility token of Celsius’ platform, rose 23% on Wednesday following the news....

Aug 2

MicroStrategy went all in on Bitcoin. Image: Shutterstock

MicroStrategy Reports $917M Bitcoin Impairment Charge as Saylor Steps Aside

MicroStrategy took a non-cash digital impairment charge of $917.8 million in the second quarter of 2022, according to its Q2 2022 earnings call on Tuesday. An impairment charge describes a drastic reduction or loss in the recoverable value of an asset. In the case of MicroStrategy's Bitcoin holdings, the impairment charge reflects the decline in the price of Bitcoin compared to when MicroStrategy purchased it. Impairment can occur because of a change in policy or economic circumstances like the...

Zipmex Resuming Z Wallet Withdrawals—But Just for SOL, XRP, ADA

Zipmex is re-enabling withdrawals for 100% of user funds stored in its Z Wallet—but only for a select few altcoins. In a detailed statement released Tuesday, the South Asian cryptocurrency exchange said it will make available all users’ SOL balances today, all XRP balances on Thursday, and all ADA balances on August 9. All three assets are currently top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap, but they were nevertheless “unaffected” amid Zipmex’s liquidity crisis last month. By contrast, it remains u...

New York Attorney General Letitia James. Image: Shutterstock

NY Attorney General Urges New Yorkers 'Deceived' by Crypto Firms to Contact Office

New York Attorney General (NYAG) Letitia James has urged New Yorkers who've found themselves locked out of their accounts or who've been "deceived about their cryptocurrency investments" to contact her office. In an investor alert issued by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG), James said that "The recent turbulence and significant losses in the cryptocurrency market are concerning," adding that crypto investors "were promised large returns on cryptocurrencies, but instead lost their hard-ea...

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