MicroStrategy Buys More BTC, FTX Revelations and More Contagion: This Week’s Crypto Recap

The last week of 2022 ends with a bang but not in terms of price action, which remains as dull as possible. However, it was marked by multiple events, so let’s dive in.

First things first, Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy seems far from being done with buying BTC. The company revealed another purchase of more than 2,000 bitcoins, bringing its total to more than 132K. It’s also worth noting, though, that the company also sold around 700 BTC for the first time ever – for tax purposes.

It’s also interesting to note that the company revealed that it plans to introduce Bitcoin lightning Network applications during the following year.

Elsewhere, revelations in the case against FTX, Alameda, and its executives (in the face of SBF, Caroline Ellison, and Gary Wang) continue with full force. This week, it became clear that Bankman-Fried used a loan from Alameda to buy his shares in the popular retail-oriented trading platform Robinhood. Later in the week, it also became clear that the Bahamas seized a whopping $3.5 billion from the exchange to keep them from vanishing.

Unfortunately, it appears that there’s a lot that is yet to be unraveled. For example, what was once one of the largest and most active networks, is now getting ripped to shreds. Solana is down over 96% from its all-time high. This week alone, the cryptocurrency lost over 22%. Alameda and SBF used to be amongst its backers.

Price-wise, the market remains rather dull, with a slight decrease throughout the past 7 days. BTC lost a little over one percent, and it trades at $16,500, unable to break towards $17K. ETH is down about 2%, and it currently trades at slightly below $1.2K.

All in all and perhaps somewhat expectedly, there was no Christmas rally as volatility dissipates from broader markets as well. It remains very interesting to see what the next year has in store and if 2023 will bring about the much-anticipated recovery.

Market Data

Market Cap: $825B | 24H Vol: 35B | BTC Dominance: 38.5%

BTC: $16,530 (-1.8%) | ETH: $1,194 (-1.9%) | BNB: $244 (-0.4%)

This Week’s Crypto Headlines You Can’t Miss

Bahamas Seized $3.5 Billion From FTX to Keep Them From Vanishing. Bahamian regulators said that they have seized $3.5 billion in assets from FTX and that they are held in custody for safekeeping. They intend to return them to the defrauded investors as the courts see fit.

MicroStrategy Adds 2500 BTC: Total Stack Now 132,251 Bitcoin. MicroStrategy once again bought a huge amount of BTC – over 2,000, to be more precise. However, the company also sold some for the first time ever – for tax purposes.

FTX Japan Reveals When it Will Resume Withdrawals. The Japanese branch of FTX said that it will shut down its business operations once users are able to withdraw their assets from the platform. This is supposed to take place by February 2023.

MicroStrategy to Introduce Bitcoin Lightning Applications Next Year. The company said it will launch certain solutions powered by the Bitcoin layer-2 scaling solution – the Lightning Network. According to them, these applications could reach millions of users.

3Commas Admits APIs Were Leaked Contrary To Prior Statements. After months, during which victims were blamed for having poor security habits, 3Commas finally came clean and announced that there are stolen API Keys.

The FTX Contagion Goes on: Midas Investments Closes Down. The contagion stemming from the fallout of FTX continues. This time, a cryptocurrency platform called Midas Investments revealed that it will be shutting down because it was heavily affected by the crash of both FTX and Celsius.

Charts

This week we have a chart analysis of Ethereum, Ripple, Cardano, Polygon, and Solana – click here for the complete price analysis.