Bitcoin, other crypto start week lower as FTX collapse continues rumble through the industry

Bitcoin and Ether both fell in Monday morning trading in Asia along with all of the top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. With the exception of XRP, all the top 10 also lost ground over the last seven days as more details emerged about the failure of the FTX exchange. In addition, FTX appealed to other exchanges to help track the hacker who stole an estimated US$600 million from the Bahamas-based exchange and began moving the funds into other tokens.

See related article: FTX hacker becomes 35th largest Ethereum holder

Fast facts

• Bitcoin fell 2.6% to US$16,278 in the 24 hours to 8 a.m. in Hong Kong, while Ether slumped 6.3% to US$1,141, according to CoinMarketCap.

• By Tuesday, the address associated with the FTX hack held at least 228,523.83 Ether, making it the 35^th largest Ethereum holder in the world. On Sunday, the hacker began exchanging the Ether into Ren Bitcoin (renBTC), a token representing Bitcoin on other blockchains, after moving some of the Ether to a new wallet.

• FTX called on other exchanges to assist in returning the funds via Twitter on Monday morning, which it described as “certain funds transferred from FTX Global and related debtors without authorization.” The funds in question left the exchange on Nov. 12, or the day after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S.

• Leading memecoin Dogecoin saw the heaviest losses in CoinMarketCap’s top 10 list, falling 8.7% to US$0.07, while Polygon was close behind, losing 8% to US$0.80.

• U.S. equities ended the day higher on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.6%, the S&P 500 Index rose 0.5% while the Nasdaq Composite Index rose less than 0.1%.

• The Bank of America (BoA) downgraded U.S.-based Coinbase Global Inc.’s rating from buy to neutral on Friday, as the company’s share price fell 7.2% in Friday trading. “We think Coinbase (COIN) likely faces a number of new headwinds over the near/medium-term due to the recent collapse of rival crypto exchange FTX,” BoA analyst Jason Kupferberg wrote. BoA added, however, it was confident Coinbase is “not another FTX.”

See related article: FTX files for bankruptcy, Sam Bankman-Fried steps down as CEO