While the past week saw several dramatic developments across the cryptocurrency industry, the rally in January has continued and reached {{1057391 | Bitcoin {{to its highest price since September on Friday afternoon.
Despite some of the fear, uncertainty, and skepticism stemming from Wednesday’s announcement by the DOJ, {{945629|bitcoin{{{(({945629|bitcoin{{)) has continued its rally in 2023 and is up nearly 6% on Friday alone. Other cryptocurrencies follow a similar path as they rallied { {1058142 | Ethereum {also by 6% and 1061448 rose by 2.5%.
On Friday, Bitcoin rose above $22,000 for the first time since September 2022 (Image via TradingView)
Bitcoin continues its rally in January and reaches a four-month high
The world’s largest cryptocurrency reached late 2022 mostly between $16,000 and $17,000. In fact, the last time bitcoin was above $22,000 was in September and then crashed below $20,000 shortly before FTX went bankrupt without claiming value for the rest of the year.
January saw an unexpected rally across the cryptocurrency industry with several large digital assets – and stocks of some digital asset companies – seeing a steady rally through the first weeks of the year. Ethereum is up nearly 40% since the start of the year, and CoinBeers {NASDAQ:{{1172292|COIN–which fell from $230 to $35 between January and December 2022]–has risen 64% to $55 in the same period.
Even the price of the FTX token is up around 30% this week — though that rally was a result of the news that the exchange’s new management is considering reopening. The only setback for this week’s rally came on Wednesday morning when the Justice Department announced it would make a major announcement at noon.
Bitcoin and several other assets fell heavily on the news regarding the announcement and only partially recovered after it was revealed that the implementation was targeting Bitzlato (Photo courtesy of TradingView)
The fact that the Department of Justice announced that it would be accompanied by other important government agencies including the FBI caused a kind of temporary fear, uncertainty and suspicion that saw the prices of assets such as Bitcoin drop sharply. The downfall was relatively short-lived after the revelation that {{news-2983137 || This news is about a little-known exchange called Bitzlato {{. Since then, this advertisement has been widely called “nothing”.
The turbulent week for cryptocurrencies is coming to an end
Aside from the action against Bitzlato, this week saw several major developments in the cryptocurrency industry. Just on Friday, a hearing was held on the controversial role played by the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, and the Genesis lending entities filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after months of uncertainty.
While the disgraced former CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman Fried, has tried to blame the exchange’s bankruptcy – and, perhaps more importantly, the gratuitous bankruptcy of its US subsidiary – on the law firm, the law firm’s role in The measures did not become a hot topic of discussion until Thursday afternoon after the former compliance officer, Dan Friedberg, submitted an affidavit. While Friedberg raised an attack on the allegations against the law firm, the bankruptcy judge ultimately called the affidavit “full of rumours, insinuations, speculation and hearsay” and allowed {{ -2984613 || FTX was allowed to hire Sullivan and Cromwell{ as bankruptcy advisors.
Another development that shook the industry but failed to stem the rise is the announcement of {{ -2984558 || Bankruptcy of Genesis Lending Branch {{(. The bankruptcy had been speculated since November last year and was announced as imminent on Wednesday before being filed over the weekend.