The cryptocurrency market recently experienced events that were previously expected to present a severe negative price impact, and yet, Bitcoin (BTC) traded near $37,000 on Nov. 22 — essentially flat from three days prior.
Such performance was utterly unexpected given the relevance of Binance’s plea deal on Nov. 21 with the United States government for violating laws involving money laundering and terror financing.
Bearish news has had limited impact on Bitcoin price
One might argue that entities have been manipulating Bitcoin’s price to avoid contagion, possibly involving the issuing of unbacked stablecoins — especially those with direct ties to the exchanges suffering from regulatory pressure. Thus, to identify whether investors became highly risk-averse, one should analyze Bitcoin derivatives instead of focusing solely on the current price levels.
The U.S. government filed indictments against Binance and co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao in Washington state on Nov. 14, but the documents were unsealed on Nov. 21. After admitting the offenses, CZ stepped away from Binance management as part of the deal. Penalties totaled over $4 billion, including fines imposed on CZ personally. The news triggered a mere $50 million in BTC leveraged long futures contracts after Bitcoin’s price momentarily traded down to $35,600.
It is worth noting that on Nov. 20, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission sued crypto exchange Kraken, alleging it commingled customer funds and failed to register with the regulator as a securities broker, dealer and clearing agency. Additionally, the complaint claimed Kraken paid for operational expenses directly from accounts containing customer assets. However, Kraken said the SEC’s commingling accusations were previously earned fees, so essentially their proprietary assets.
Another potentially disastrous tidbit of news came from Mt. Gox, a now-defunct Bitcoin exchange that lost 850,000 BTC to a hack in 2014. Nobuaki Kobayashi, the Mt. Gox trustee, announced on Nov. 21 the redemption of $47 million in trust assets and reportedly plans to start the first cash repayments to…
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