Proactive Investors - The cryptocurrency markets are down across the board this Friday, with benchmark cryptoasset bitcoin (BTC) failing to sustain the US$30,000 support line as the week comes to a close.
Following a volatile Thursday session, the BTC/USDT pair ended 0.4% at US$29,800, where it has stayed during this morning’s Asia trading window.
This comes as a concern for the bulls, who have largely managed to keep bitcoin above 30k over the past month. Furthermore, a swathe of 30k sell orders on the Binance order book could provide stiff resistance.
Bitcoin heads below 30k – Source: currency.com
Long liquidations on the futures market have shot up to US$13mln in the past 24 hours compared to US$4.8mln of short liquidations.
As for the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum (ETH) also had a volatile Thursday session, hitting a high of US$1,930 before closing approximately 0.15% higher at US$1,891.
Week on week, bitcoin and ether are now 4.6% and 5.4% lower respectively.
Even Ripple (XRP), which has been on an absolute rip of late following a partial win in its long-running dispute with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has tipped into the week-on-week red.
Though with a market capitalisation above US$40bn, XRP remains the fourth-largest cryptocurrency, having flipped former fourth, Binance’s BNB token.
The global cryptocurrency market capitalisation currently stands at US$1.2tn, with bitcoin dominance at 49.83%.
FTX back in the news
The FTX spectre has reared its ugly head again, with the New York Times publishing diary entries written by Caroline Ellison, a former executive of Sam Bankman-Fried’s collapsed crypto empire.
Ellison, a former partner of Bankman-Fried, was head of Alameda Research, a sister hedge fund to Bankman-Fried’s FTX cryptocurrency trading desk.
The entries paint a picture of an executive ill-equipped to run a multi-billion-dollar corporation.
“Running Alameda doesn’t feel like something I’m that comparatively advantaged at or well suited to do,” she wrote in April 2022, seven months before FTX and Alameda collapsed with a US$8bn deficit.
She expressed elation when it became apparent that FTX and Alaedma were on the brink of destruction.
Ellison is expected to act as a star witness in Bankman-Fried’s trial commencing in October.
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