February 1, 2023

An attempt by defunct crypto trading firm Alameda Research to regain $446 million it transferred in loan repayments to bankrupt Voyager Digital has been rejected by both the creditors’ committee and Voyager itself, according to court filings. Voyager creditors argued that Alameda’s claims should either be equitably subordinated to all other creditor claims, or recharacterized as equity. The creditors said that Alameda’s “inequitable and fraudulent conduct” cost Voyager and the creditors between $114 million to $122 million. 

Sam Bankman-Fried (Nikhilesh De/CoinDesk)

Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchangeFTX had around $1.4 billion in cash as of the end of 2022, according to an interim financial update filed on Wednesday. The figure is around 19% higher than the $1.2 billion reported in November when FTX filed for bankruptcy. Amongst the various arms of Sam Bankman-Fried's fallen crypto empire, FTX.US has $260 million in cash. Bankman-Fried has repeatedly claimed that the U.S. wing is solvent. Last month he blogged that FTX US "had at least $111 million, and likely around $400 million, of excess cash on top of what was required to match customer balances."

ARK Invest maintains its prediction that bitcoin prices will hit $1 million by 2030. Fundamentals are sound despite a turbulent 2022, according to the ARK's 2023 Big Ideas research report. “Contagion caused by centralized counterparties has elevated Bitcoin’s value propositions: decentralization, auditability, and transparency,” writes Cathie Wood and team. ARK backs up this claim by pointing to a higher hash rate, long-term holder supply, and addresses with a non-zero balance compared to the prior downturns.

Metaverse-related tokens have started the year hot, outperforming bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value, by large margins.

Decentraland’s MANA, which is the native token of the metaverse project, has gained about 145% in January. Decentraland’s price uptick has largely followed its announcement of a number of new features mid-month, although the platform’s user figures haven’t increased significantly.

January’s market surge has seen a number of smaller tokens outshine the largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Bitcoin has risen 40% for the month, ether by 32% and BNB by 32%. Decentraland’s market cap sits at $1.3 billion while bitcoin’s is $446 billion.

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– Omkar Godbole

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