First Mover Americas: BTC, ETH Drop Amid Genesis Bankruptcy Reports

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Genesis Global Capital, the institutional crypto brokerage, is laying the groundwork for a bankruptcy filing, according to several media reports. Genesis is in confidential negotiations with various creditor groups, with the company warning it could seek bankruptcy protection if it fails to raise capital, a Bloomberg report said. Since the collapse and bankruptcy of crypto exchange FTX in November, Genesis has been scrambling to raise fresh capital or reach a deal with creditors. Digital Currency Group owns both Genesis and CoinDesk.

Binance was named as a counterparty in an order against the little-known Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange, Bitzlato. The exchange was accused of laundering $700 million by U.S. authorities on Wednesday. Binance was named as the top three receiving and sending counterparties associated with Bitzlato, according to the order from the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). "Approximately two-thirds of Bitzlato’s top receiving and sending counterparties are associated with darknet markets or scams,” the order said. “For example, Bitzlato’s top receiving counterparty, by total amount of BTC received between May 2018 and September 2022 was Binance.”

Bitcoin was trading down on the day following news of a pending U.S. Justice Department announcement of a major international cryptocurrency enforcement action on Wednesday. The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap reached lows of $20,400 over the last 24 hours, after reaching its highest price point since mid-September of around $21,602. Ether also lost ground on Thursday, down around 4%. Hadera Hashgraph’s HBAR token and layer-1 Aptos’ token both posted gains and Shiba Inu lost 10%.

Chart of the Day

• The chart compares bitcoin's price with its 14-day relative strength index (RSI), a technical analysis tool used to gauge momentum, going back to 2016.
• The RSI recently rose past 80 to its highest since 2019 as bitcoin rallied to a two-month high.
• A reading above-80 indicates an asset is overbought. However, that's not always the case.
• "The relative strength index, a momentum indicator, ripped higher throughout the last week and pushed toward 2019 highs. This supports that the rally is extended in the short term. However, it also represents the first proper signal of strengthening momentum in BTC since the bull market of 2021," Arcane Research's weekly note said.
• "The current recovery resembles BTC’s initial recovery from the depths of the 2018 bear market. After RSI pushed above 80 in April 2019 following a relative volatility compression in March, BTC stayed rangebound for 40 days. Now, BTC has recovered to its Q3 range, the RSI is extended, and shorts are cautious, increasing the likelihood of near-term stability," Arcane Research added.

– Omkar Godbole

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