The latest moves in crypto markets, in context By Lyllah Ledesma, CoinDesk reporter Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here. |
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Welcome to Thursday! Here’s what's happening in crypto today: |
- SEC argues in regulatory complaint that FTX’s token, FTT, is a security.
- FTX co-founders Wang and Ellison plead guilty to charges tied to FTX’s collapse.
- Twitter adds crypto and stock prices in its search results.
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Want our 5 p.m. ET market update? |
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Bitcoin (BTC): $16,824 -0.13%
Ether (ETC): $1,216 −0.27% |
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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has called FTX’s FTT exchange token a security. FTT was sold as an investment contract, and is a "security," the SEC said in a complaint filed late Wednesday, in a move that is sure to have a wide-ranging impact on the industry. "If demand for trading on the FTX platform increased, demand for the FTT token could increase, such that any price increase in FTT would benefit holders of FTT equally and in direct proportion to their FTT holdings," the SEC wrote in its complaint. |
Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang have pleaded guilty to criminal fraud charges tied to FTX's collapse. The SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission also announced charges against the two, saying Ellison manipulated the price of FTT. The duo are cooperating with investigators. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York did not specify what they were being charged with. Twitter has integrated cryptocurrency prices into search results using a plug-in from charting platform TradingView. The integration allows users to type crypto or stock tickers into the search bar to generate the current value and a price chart. The result also includes a link to trading app Robinhood. The social media giant has had several ties to the crypto industry over the past few years, adding a tipping feature in September 2021 while the company was under the management of Jack Dorsey. Since then, Twitter has been taken over by Elon Musk. |
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Market Insight: Bitcoin Is Leading Indicator for S&P 500
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Traditional market investors looking for hints of a potential bearish-to-bullish trend change in U.S. stocks should keep a close eye on bitcoin. The leading cryptocurrency by market value tends to lead major stock market bottoms by at least six weeks, analysis of past data by Delphi Digital shows. "History shows that, on average, BTC has topped ~48 days and bottomed ~10 days before”the S&P 500, Delphi's strategists, led by Kevin Kelly, wrote in a 2023 preview sent to clients on Wednesday. "Over the past five years, all major price reversals in BTC have preceded those in major equity indices." It shows bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, in general, are looked upon by investors as more risky assets than stocks. As Brookings Institutions' Eswar Prasad noted last year, bitcoin has become a speculative investment. |
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The chart shows the number of daily active bitcoin addresses since January 2020. The metric filters out addresses with unsuccessful transactions. The average number of daily active addresses this year has been 921,445 – a 16% drop from the 2021 average of 1.1 million. "Aside from the decline in trading volumes, the fall in DAA could also correspond to reduced mining operations as miners' activity corresponds to BTC's most significant on-chain movements," the Dec. 12 issue of Bitfinex's Alpha report said. The greater the active user participation on the blockchain, the higher the demand for and the price of the cryptocurrency.
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Disclaimer: The information presented in this message is intended as a news item that provides a brief summary of various events and developments that affect, or that might in the future affect, the value of one or more of the cryptocurrencies described above. The information contained in this message, and any information liked through the items contained herein, is not intended to provide sufficient information to form the basis for an investment decision. The information presented herein is accurate only as of its date, and it was not prepared by a research analyst or other investment professional. You should seek additional information regarding the merits and risks of investing in any cryptocurrency before deciding to purchase or sell any such instruments. |
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