Cryptocurrency prices continue to slide amid uncertainty about a deal between two of the industry’s largest exchanges.
That’s according to a Wednesday (Nov. 9) report by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which noted there are continued drops in the price of popular cryptocurrencies bitcoin and ethereum, as well as more significant slides for FTT. That’s the coin owned by the FTX exchange, and it has lost three-quarters of its value since Tuesday (Nov. 8).
This news comes a day after rival crypto exchange Binance — the largest trading platform by volume — said it would acquire FTX, saving the company from a “liquidity crunch.”
However, WSJ reported that traders aren’t sure the deal will still happen, as Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has said the company could still pull out of the acquisition.
Zhao wrote on Twitter Wednesday that due diligence for the deal is ongoing. He cautioned his followers not to trade FTT tokens and said that FTX going under “is not good for anyone in the industry.”
In the spirit of transparency, might as well share the actual note, sent to all Binance team globally a few hours ago.https://t.co/IUNkPcLC8T pic.twitter.com/XGlIJB7EV5
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) November 9, 2022
Meanwhile, bitcoin is coming to the end of a rocky year. A year ago, the digital token peaked at $68,789. As of Monday (Nov. 7), it was below $20,000, having lost 70% of its value in 12 months.
As bitcoin reached its record high last November, analysts attributed the rally in part to investors who were attempting to hedge against inflation, with the rest coming from “rampant speculation, often by investors with little to no prior experience,” according to PYMNTS.
Less than three months after BTC’s moment at the top, gravity won out, and by late January of this year, the most widely-held digital currency had seen its valuation quickly sliced in half.
And in the months since May’s wider crypto market drop, bitcoin has never risen above $25,000 and has fallen below the $20,000 level on numerous occasions.
This led PYMNTS to report last month that, for active bitcoin traders, the currency’s largest hurdle is its current lack of volatility. With bitcoin relatively flat since June, retail buyers and sellers — once enticed by those extreme moves — are now looking for opportunities elsewhere.
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