Cryptocurrencies slide as worries about FTX fester in latest crypto liquidity scare
Cryptocurrencies dropped amid rumors of insolvency at crypto exchange FTX.
FrankLin
The logo of the cryptocurrency Terra Luna is seen on the screen of a computer in an office.
Silas Stein/picture alliance via Getty Images
The cryptocurrency market fell on Tuesday amid rumors of insolvency at crypto exchange FTX and worries over what it says about the financial conditions of its sister company Alameda Research.
Bitcoin and ether were lower by 6% and 8% respectively, according to Coin Metrics.
Crypto assets tied to Alameda, the trading company also owned by billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, were suffering steeper losses. FTX Token (FTT), the native token of the FTX trading platform, has fallen 23% in the past 24 hours. The token tied to Ethereum competitor Solana, of which Alameda is a big backer, has lost 12%.
"There are a lot of mirrors to the Celsius and Three Arrows crisis that happened months ago and what you're seeing is investors kind of having deja vu again and fear leaking into the markets," said Conor Ryder, research analyst at Kaiko.
Investor confidence has been shaken after Binance founder Changpeng Zhao tweeted over the weekend that the company would sell its holdings of FTT. Binance is the largest crypto exchange in the world by trading volume and was an early backer of FTX.
Zhao said in his tweet that Binance has about $2.1 billion worth of FTT and BUSD, the fiat-backed stablecoin issued by Binance and Paxos.
"Due to recent revelations that have came to light, we have decided to liquidate any remaining FTT on our books," he said.
Those revelations refer to rumors about the solvency of FTX, the second-biggest crypto exchange in the world by trading volume. A report last week on the state of Alameda's finances showed a large portion of its balance sheet is concentrated in FTT and is leveraged using FTT as collateral. Alameda has disputed that claim, saying FTT represents only part of its total balance sheet.
"The Alameda hedge fund is tied to FTX through a ton of FTT tokens and the rumors started that if they are using all of these FTT tokens as collateral… there are two issues," said Jeff Dorman, chief investment officer at Arca. "If the price of FTT goes way down then Alameda could face margin calls and all kinds of pressure; two is if FTX is the lender to Alameda then everyone's going to be in trouble."
