What the FUD, FTX!

DATE: 03-03-23 View online Hey Cryptonews, here's our curated daily bundle of crypto news. Bitcoin [BTC] whales shrink their assets as March beckons Some BTC whales have reduced their crypto-holdings over the past week Actions of whales could precipitate a downtrend on the charts The no. of addresses holding 1000 BTCs has fallen significantly over the last 7 days. In fact, according to Santiment, these were the very whales who fueled the cryptocurrency's uptick in January and February, with the number for the aforementioned now down to just 2,011.  Here, it's worth noting that this number accounts for the lowest level in the last three years. This is a bearish signal, especially since price appreciation is usually facilitated by whale accumulation, not the opposite. If there is a wider trend of selling from these whales, selling pressure might be too much to bear.  At the time of writing, BTC was valued at just under $22,500, having fallen by over 5% since the uncertainty around crypto-friendly bank SIlvergate Capital ensued. According to a CryptoQuant analyst, the cryptocurrency is now likely to hold this range -  "Technically forming portfolios on an aggregate scale despite a low price, but there is still a target of 22,241, but in general to maintain a bottom above the bottom and top of the top." Learn More Shanghai upgrade pushed to early April The Goerli testnet has been slated for 14 March Shanghai hard fork is postponed by approximately two weeks The long-awaited Shanghai mainnet upgrade's final dress rehearsal, the Goerli testnet, has been slated for 14 March. However, Ethereum developers have postponed the highly-anticipated Shanghai hard fork by approximately two weeks to early April. According to Ethereum core developer and project coordinator Tim Beiko, "For mainnet we usually want to give people at least two weeks after the announcement. So, imagine Goerli happens on the 14th, everything goes well, and on the 16th we agree to move forward with mainnet — I think the earliest that puts us is the first week of April." During the meeting, core developers came to the consensus that the hard fork should occur a fortnight after the Goerli testnet launch.  The Shanghai Capella upgrade to Goerli will also be the last chance for Ethereum clients and staking providers to make sure the Shanghai hard fork can go through smoothly when it launches on the mainnet. Shanghai fork: Holders suspect sell-off? ETH holders are worried about a possible sell-off There may not be as much selling pressure on these Ethereum stakers Ethereum's upcoming Shanghai Upgrade has made ETH holders worried about a possible sell-off. One similar to the one seen immediately after the Ethereum merge.  One of the reasons for the same could be that the Shanghai upgrade would enable holders to withdraw their staked ETH. These holders could end up selling their ETH and drive the price of the altcoin down.  However, there may not be as much selling pressure on these Ethereum stakers as previously believed. According to recent data, 60% of the ETH staked is at a loss, representing 10.3 million ETH.  These holders would not have as much of an incentive to sell their holdings. Even though 60% of the overall staked ETH addresses are expected to HODL, the same cannot be said for the rest of the 40% of holders on the network. The sell-off from the remaining profitable addresses could impact ETH's prices negatively. Learn More Report: FTX presentation shows shortfall in holdings FTX released a presentation revealing shortfalls in its holdings FTX recorded a deficit of $8.6B across all wallets and accounts  Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has revealed shortfalls in its holdings, with billions worth of funds missing from both FTX and FTX US. In total, FTX recorded a deficit of $8.6 billion worth across all wallets and accounts while FTX US recorded a deficit of $116 million. On 2 March, FTX released a presentation showing it had $2.2 billion in exchange wallets and fiat accounts. $694 million consisted of "Category A Assets" that include Bitcoin and Ether priced at the latest spot prices, as well as cash and stablecoins. Only $191 million of total assets were located in the wallets of the accounts linked to FTX US.  "The exchanges' assets were highly commingled, and their books and records are incomplete and, in many cases, totally absent," CEO of FTX, John J. Ray III said in a recent statement. Coinbase cuts ties with Silvergate  Coinbase announced that it would not accept payments to or from Silvergate  Six other crypto firms-ended their alliance too Shortly after Silvergate Bank announced that it would be delaying its annual report filing in its SEC report yesterday, following in the footsteps of LedgerX, Coinbase announced it would end its alliance with Silvergate. In a Twitter thread, Coinbase noted, "...In light of recent developments & out of an abundance of caution, Coinbase is no longer accepting or initiating payments to or from Silvergate." Furthermore, the crypto-exchange stated that it would use "other banking partners" to provide services to its institutional clients. Coinbase also revealed that the firm "has taken proactive action to help ensure that clients experience no impact from this change." Notably, six other firms dropped Silvergate after Coinbase ended its alliance with the bank. Among the six, Paxos, Gemini, and Galaxy Digital stopped accepting payments from Silvergate. Circle announced that it is in the process of ending certain services with the bank. Bitstamp and Crypto.com temporarily disabled services to the bank too. No layoffs at Binance, confirms exchange A Binance spokesperson claimed that the exchange has no plans for layoffs 600 people have been hired since January A report from CoinGecko revealed that 84.8% of the crypto-layoffs in January were due to crypto-exchanges reducing headcount. Despite the marked increase in crypto-layoffs, however, Binance has announced that it is "not planning any layoffs." According to a Binance spokesperson, "...As of today, we are actively hiring for more than 500 roles with the goal of filling them by the end of H1 [...] We are not planning any layoffs." In fact, the spokesperson pointed out that the company has hired over 600 people since the beginning of 2023. Notably, a CNBC report from January revealed that Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao had said that the firm was planning for a hiring spree in 2023, increasing its headcount by 15% to 30%. At the time of writing, Binance had 463 listings on its job openings page, with roles in business development, communications, customer support and engineering, to name a few.  UK banks to ban credit card crypto-purchases  Nationwide credit cards will no longer permit crypto-transactions HSBC had banned credit card payments to Binance in August 2021 Warnings by U.K. regulators and scandals surrounding the crypto-industry have resulted in several banks in the country tightening restrictions on digital assets. Joining the aforementioned, U.K. banks - HSBC Holdings and Nationwide Building Society plan to ban cryptocurrency purchases via credit cards for retail customers. Reportedly, Nationwide will apply daily limits of 5,000 British pounds ($5,965) on debit-card purchases of crypto-assets, while credit cards will no longer be available for crypto-transactions. Additionally, HSBC's clients were banned from making crypto-purchases with their credit cards last month. An email from HSBC noted, "...This is because of the possible risk to customers."  Notably, HSBC banned credit card payments to Binance in August 2021, citing concerns about the exchange's regulatory status in the country. Moreover, a majority of the banks in the U.K. with restrictions on crypto-services such as Santander, Natwest Group, and Lloyds Banking Group had imposed restrictions that target Binance.  Not a good day for Bitcoin & co. Coin Price 24hr Market Cap ↓BTC $22,358 -4.9% $432 Billion ↓ETH $1,569 -4.8% $189 Billion ↓BNB $290 -3.2% $46 Billion Bitcoin's [BTC] price dipped by 4.9% over the last 24 hours. Even so, the king coin was trading at $22,358 on the charts at press time. The RSI was seen moving below the 50-mark with a reading of 43.06, implying a selling bias. The OBV was wavering with a southward progression to confirm a weak bearish trend. The Parabolic SAR reinforced the sentiment as the dotted markers started to form above the price. Ethereum [ETH] was trading at $1,569, at the time of writing, seeing a 4.8% drop over the last 24 hours. The Chaikin Money Flow (CMF) indicator was traversing over zero with a reading of 0.07, indicating buying pressure. However, the Awesome Oscillator started glowing red signal bars above half-line - An indication of a possible pullback. With a broader divergence, the Bollinger Bands showed higher volatility as the prices progressed towards the lower bands. BNB registered a decline of 3.2% in the aforementioned period, trading at $290 at press time. The Chaikin Money Flow (CMF) indicator was on a southbound trajectory, with a reading of -0.03 to indicate selling pressure. The AO further reinforced bearish sentiment as red bars were seen forming above the 0-levels. The On Balance Volume was also seen moving in bearish territory.  Altcoins sail south Coin Price 24hr Market Cap ↓ADA $0.34 -6.1% $11 Billion ↓DOGE $0.08 -6.9% $10 Billion ↓SHIB $0.00001131 -6.1% $6 Billion Cardano [ADA] nosedived by 6.1% over the aforementioned time period, with the crypto trading at $0.34 at press time. The OBV reciprocated a southbound progression to confirm a strong bearish trend. The MACD exuded red histograms below the half-line to confirm the buying bias in the market as the MACD and Signal lines progressed south and also stood below zero. This was further confirmed by the RSI which was treading below the 50-mark.   DOGE stood at $0.08 with a 6.9% depreciation over the previous trading day. Selling pressure outweighed the buying pressure as the RSI was seen falling below the 50-mark with a reading of 35.16. The Awesome Oscillator also flashed multiple red bars below the zero line, confirming bearish momentum. Parabolic SAR highlighted the same sentiment as dots were spotted above the price. SHIB was trading at $0.00001131 after a steep fall of 6.1% in the last 24 hours. The Bollinger Bands showed divergence, with the price moving towards the lower band. The Awesome Oscillator, with bears lying below the zero line, further confirmed the ongoing trend.  The Parabolic SAR also revealed a bearish downtrend as it was seen moving above the price candles on the chart. Double-digit weekly losses on the cards Coin Price 1w Market Cap ↓↓FTM $0.41 -17.8% $1 Billion ↓↓FIL $6.21 -21.3% $2 Billion ↓↓ZEC $39.43 -17.7% $474 Million FTM [Fantom] saw a major fall of 17.8% and was valued at $0.41 at press time. The Awesome Oscillator denoted plunging red signal bars below the half-line, indicating strong bearish momentum. Buying pressure was down as the CMF was below the half-line with a reading of -0.07. The OBV also progressed south to reflect the bearish momentum. FIL [Filecoin] plummeted by 21.3%, with the price hitting $6.21 over the past week. From among the oscillators, the Awesome Oscillator flashed red histograms above the 0-level, indicating a weak selling bias. This was further confirmed by the DMI as ADX showed a reading of 35.6 and DI+ showed a reading of 26.4, indicating a strong directional trend. Zcash [ZEC], at press time, was trading at $39.43 after depreciation of 17.7% in the last 7 days. The Parabolic SAR showed dots gathering above the price, indicating weak selling pressure. The Relative Strength Index was seen moving steadily below the 50-mark, implying that average losses surpassed average gains. Finally, the AO also saw red bars forming below 0 - A sign of bearish momentum. Share with friends: Facebook  | |  Twitter  | |  Email © 2022 Unhashed. All Rights Reserved. Unsubscribe