Crypto Flipsider News – Market Wrap; Curve’s CRV Spikes 75%; Binance.US PAC; FTX First Hearing; Genesis Restructuring

Read in the Digest:

Market wrap: BTC, ETH recovers, Litecoin (LTC) hits new six-month high

Curve (CRV) jumps 75% amidst record CRV held on centralized exchanges

Binance steps into national politics, forming an Innovation PAC

FTX’s first hearing reveals the Cayman Islands and BVI had the most customers

Genesis hires restructuring experts as it fights to avoid bankruptcy

Market wrap: BTC, ETH recovers, Litecoin (LTC) hits new six-month high

The cryptocurrency market has rebounded after dropping to a new two-year low in the early hours of Tuesday. Bitcoin, the world’s biggest crypto, is up by 5.1% over the last 24 hours, shooting up from $15,600 to as high as $16,600.

The 24-hour price chart for Bitcoin (BTC). Source: CoinMarketCap

With the entire crypto market breaking out of the descending pattern, Ethereum (ETH) is outperforming its biggest rival, BTC, rallying by 7.8% in the last 24 hours to trade as high as $1,175 from a low of $1,081.

The 24-hour price chart for Ethereum (ETH). Source: CoinMarketCap

Litecoin (LTC) is today’s biggest gainer, as the crypto continues to shine brightly amid the FTX-induced chaos. Over the last 24 hours, Litecoin has jumped by 28% to hit a new six-month high at $81.56.

The 24-hour price chart for Litecoin (LTC). Source: CoinMarketCap

LTC has rallied over 43%, from $55 to $79, this month. The rally from Litecoin comes in anticipation of the network’s third mining reward halving, which will cut LTC’s pace of supply expansion by 50%.

Flipsider:

As the debate about the classification of cryptos continues MicroStrategy’s boss, Michael Saylor, has said that Litecoin is likely a commodity like Bitcoin.

Why You Should Care

The rally is an encouraging sign for investors that the crypto market has possibly gone past the market crash ignited by the FTX collapse.

Curve (CRV) jumps 75% amidst record CRV held on centralized exchanges

CRV, the native token of Curve Finance – a decentralized exchange for stablecoins – has erupted in the market, rallying by more than 75% to wipe off its Tuesday losses when the token sank to a two-year low.

The price spike saw CRV move from a low of $0.4096 on Tuesday, to a peak at $0.7239. Although the rally has cooled off, CRV maintains a 26% gain over the last 24 hours as the token now trades at $0.625.

The 48-hour price chart for Curve DAO Token (CRV). Source: CoinMarketCap

Curve’s rally comes amidst a surge in the number of coins held at centralized exchanges (CEXs). The number of CRV tokens in CEXs jumped by 46% in the past 24 hours and 70% this month to hit a record 148.9 million CRV.

According to data tracker Lookonchain, the surge was brought about by a large investor who recently borrowed 20 million CRV from the DeFi lending giant Aave and transferred half of it to OKEx, possibly to sell the token.

Flipsider:

Lookonchain also reported that Curve Finance suffered a major short-seller attack, with the hacker using the medium to exploit a sophisticated loophole on Aave.

Binance steps into national politics, forming an Innovation PAC

The U.S. subsidiary of the world’s largest crypto exchange has launched a political action committee (PAC), signaling its intention to fill the void in the crypto industry’s political involvement left by FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried.

The committee was formed by Binance.US with a filing to the Federal Elections Commission dated Monday, November 21st. The formation of the Binance Innovation PAC follows the conclusion of congressional elections.

Although Binance did not provide detailed information on what its intention is, it is more than likely that the Innovation PAC will support crypto-forward lawmakers who align with its mission.

The announcement comes after Binance.US appointed Krishna Juvvadi as head of the legal department. The hire resonates with the company’s plans to boost its legal and compliance community.

Flipsider:

Binance’s rival, Coinbase, revealed a PAC earlier this year. It was similarly called Coinbase Innovation PAC, but only managed to raise $38,000.

Why You Should Care

The Binance.US Innovation PAC is the latest vehicle the crypto industry seeks to use to influence the enactment of crypto-friendly regulations.

FTX’s first hearing reveals the Cayman Islands and BVI had the most customers

The bankruptcy filing of FTX earmarked the most complicated process in the crypto ecosystem, as the company had more than 102 different court dockets. After more than a week of scheduling, the first hearing happened on November 22nd.

A document presented at FTX’s first bankruptcy hearing shows that the Cayman Islands had the most FTX users, accounting for 22% of the exchange’s global users before the collapse of the company.

The British Virgin Islands had the second largest number of FTX users, contributing 11%, the U.K. and China accounted for 8% each, Singapore contributed 6%, while South Korea and Taiwan contributed 4% and 3% respectively.

The U.S. accounted for only 2% of the global total. Previous reports show that FTX Trading could have over one million creditors. The company currently owes its 50 largest creditors about $3.1 billion.

Flipsider:

The court in its first hearing said that Sam Bankman-Fried ran FTX as a ‘personal fiefdom’, leading to the collapse of the crypto exchange once valued at $36 billion.

Why You Should Care

The bankruptcy hearing provides insight for the crypto community into what was going on with the bankrupt crypto exchange.

Genesis hires restructuring experts as it fights to avoid bankruptcy

Struggling crypto lender Genesis Global Capital has hired specialists from Moelis & Company to consider restructuring options, just days after it said there were no imminent plans for bankruptcy.

According to people familiar with the matter Moelis & Company, restructuring experts whose services were employed by Voyager, will help Genesis explore all options, which could include bankruptcy.

However, they stressed that at this time no financial decisions have been made in Genesis and it is still possible for the company to avoid a bankruptcy filing.

Genesis is reportedly seeking to raise $1 billion from investors to cover a shortfall that originated from the “unprecedented market turmoil” and the company’s exposure to the collapsed crypto exchange FTX.