Riding The Wave News Summary 194
Bitcoin Primed for 'Supply Shock' as Exchange Balance Drops to 5-Year Low, Analyst Says, Sam Bankman-Fried Rebuffed Barry Silbert's and Celsius' Requests for Help, Ex-FTX CEO Testifies & more.
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Bitcoin Primed for 'Supply Shock' as Exchange Balance Drops to 5-Year Low, Analyst Says
SBF takes the stand, ‘buy Bitcoin’ searches soar and other news: Hodler’s Digest, Oct. 22-28
Bitcoin-friendly El Salvador can become ‘Singapore of the Americas’ — VanEck adviser
Tweets
https://twitter.com/WhaleChart/status/1718209169239457829
https://twitter.com/EricBalchunas/status/1718024954577392038
Bitcoin Primed for 'Supply Shock' as Exchange Balance Drops to 5-Year Low, Analyst Says
Bitcoin's (BTC) supply has become increasingly constrained with exchange balances dropping to a five-year low and making the asset primed for a potential "supply shock," Matt Weller, global head of research at Forex.com, said in an interview with CoinDesk TV Thursday.
The level of available bitcoin on crypto exchanges – liquid tokens investors can easily buy and sell – has dropped 2.3 million, its lowest reading since April 2018, Glassnode data shows. That's down from 2.6 million a year ago and 3.2 million at its peak in May 2020.
Meanwhile, there's roughly 3 million tokens that haven't been moved in ten years, said Weller. That compares to the current overall supply of 19.5 million and bitcoin's maximum-ever supply of 21 million.
Weller said that spot ETFs, unlike futures-based products, could "fundamentally alter the supply and demand picture" for bitcoin, making it available for a new set of investors. That's especially so now that bitcoin has regained its "uncorrelated asset" lure by decoupling from equities and rallying as U.S. stocks have entered correction territory, he added.
"If we see just a small amount of allocation from some of those big funds on this uncorrelated or occasionally uncorrelated asset investment thesis, that could be a very bullish sign for bitcoin and the whole crypto sphere," Weller said.
Sam Bankman-Fried Rebuffed Barry Silbert's and Celsius' Requests for Help, Ex-FTX CEO Testifies at His Trial
Before Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX crypto empire blew up in November 2022, he acted – in an industry lacking a conventional backstop like the Federal Reserve – as the savior of a couple hobbled companies, BlockFi and Voyager.
He testified Friday at his criminal fraud and conspiracy trial that there were a couple other high-profile situations where he passed on helping. Digital Currency Group CEO Barry Silbert asked FTX CEO Bankman-Fried for equity capital for DCG's Genesis subsidiary sometime during the crypto market downturn last year, Bankman-Fried told jurors Friday.
Genesis was badly harmed by the collapse last year of crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, suffering a major loss. It ended up filing for bankruptcy after FTX's own collapse and eventually stopped offering trading services. (DCG also owns CoinDesk.)
Bankman-Fried also testified that Celsius, a crypto exchange and lender, also asked for emergency funds, but he shot down the request. (It, too, went bankrupt, in July 2022, as did Voyager that month, before FTX's collapse, and BlockFi afterward in November.)
SBF takes the stand, ‘buy Bitcoin’ searches soar and other news: Hodler’s Digest, Oct. 22-28
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