Bitcoin fell on Monday, trading near a one-week low, and other major cryptocurrencies also fell sharply, with the dramatic crash of cryptocurrency exchange FTX continuing to impact the market.
Bitcoin fell 3.6% to trade around $15,990.89, before paring back those losses, according to CoinDesk data. Ethereum also fell by 7% to $1,120.61.
This comes, while the market is offering cryptocurrency Under pressure during the past two weeks, as problems appeared on the main FTX exchange, according to what was reported by the “CNBC” network, which was viewed by “Al Arabiya.net”.
As of November 6 — the day the CEO of the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, Changpeng Zhao, said his exchange would liquidate its FTT cryptocurrency holdings — the cryptocurrency market has lost more than $260 billion in value.
FTT is the native token of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, and Zhao’s decision to sell FTT led to the collapse of FTX, which has since filed for bankruptcy. Binance was a competitor to FTX.
FTX’s new CEO, John Ray, said on Saturday that the exchange is looking to sell or restructure its global empire.
The company owes regarding $3 billion to its largest creditor.
And the cryptocurrency markets are still on edge because it is unclear how the FTX saga will end, and whether there will be more infections across the industry.
“The market is in a wait-and-watch mode to see if there are any other entities that might fall as a result of exposure to FTX,” commented Vijay Aiyar, Vice President of Corporate and International Development for cryptocurrency exchange Luno.
Investors have been hurt by a number of high-profile crypto failures this year that have caused significant ripple effects.
Earlier this year, the collapse of the stablecoin cryptocurrency terraUSD had spillover effects on a number of companies and contributed to the downfall of major hedge fund 3 Arrows Capital.
Amid the turmoil of the FTX collapse, some $477 million in crypto assets were drained from exchange accounts in a suspected hack, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic. FTX acknowledged that “unauthorized transactions” took place, but did not provide details on how much money was transferred.
Chainalysis, a blockchain analysis firm, said Sunday that the stolen funds are “still on the move.”
