The biggest news in the cryptoverse for Jan. 9 saw Voyager strike back against objections to Binance.US’ attempted buyout of its assets. Meanwhile, a Forbes report has drawn attention to Binance’s high outflows, and $1.57 million of funds linked to a 2022 Nomad exploit have moved over Tornado Cash. Plus, new research on two Bitcoin investor types: “shrimps” and “crabs.”
CryptoSlate Top Stories
Voyager describes Alameda’s objection to its Binance deal as ‘hypocrisy’
Bankrupt crypto lender Voyager described Alameda’s objection to Binance.US’ bid for its assets as “hypocrisy and chutzpah.”
Voyager said the bankrupt crypto trading firm has “desperately sought to undermine and sabotage” its restructuring efforts. The lender said Alameda tried to front-run its marketing proposal by offering a lowball proposal that disparages its businesses.
Voyager added that Alameda’s objection to the level of disclosure concerning certain intercompany claims were “baseless” because FTX’s counsel reviewed and approved these claims two months ago. Apart from that, the same claims have been approved by an adequate court.
Binance sees $12B withdrawn in 60 days
Binance has experienced a significant outflow of assets in the past two months, a recent report from Forbes found.
Forbes analysts dove deep into Binance’s wallets and found that the exchange saw around $12 billion of outflows since November. Aside from the massive outflows, the report finds the discrepancy between reports of Binance’s holdings troubling.
Nomad exploiter moves roughly $1.57M to Tornado Cash
A wallet address linked to the $190 million Nomad exploit has moved about $1.57 million to OFAC-sanctioned Tornado Cash.
Back on Aug 1, 2022, a hacker exploited the Nomad bridge to withdraw about 100 WBTC worth $2.3 million. The malicious code used for the exploit was exposed, leading to several copycat hacks — resulting in a total of $190.7 million being drained from the protocol.
A number of Whitehat hackers reportedly returned about $22 million to Nomad, which is roughly 4.8% of the stolen funds.
Hong Kong set to enforce crypto regulation from June
Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary Paul Chan said that the government has completed its crypto regulation framework, which will come into effect in June 2023.
Speaking at the POW’ER Web3 Summit on Jan. 9, Chan said that the legislative framework needed to issue licenses to virtual asset providers has been finalized.
Shorters get spanked as Bitcoin 2023 revival unfolds
Bitcoin short liquidations continue to pile up as BTC moves higher.
Coinglass showed that $53.24 million in shorts were liquidated since the turn of the year. By contrast, $11.98 million in longs were liquidated over the same period.
The four-hour chart showed the divergence between shorts and longs taking effect predominately on Jan. 8 – 9, as Bitcoin was rejected at $17,000, only to make a decisive break of this level several hours later.
Cardano DeFi TVL jumps 20%, ADA token rallies
The total value of assets locked (TVL) in Cardano’s DeFi ecosystem surged by 20% over the last 24 hours to $65.91 million, according to Defillama data.
Cardano’s DeFi TVL fell below $60 million on Nov. 10, 2022, finishing the year below the threshold. However, the ecosystem has made a gradual comeback since the start of the new year after a 35.66% surge over the last seven days.
U.S. Government seizes SBF’s Robinhood shares
The U.S. Government officially seized FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried‘s (SBF) Robinhood shares, which equates to $455 million, as reported by WatcherGuru.
Huobi Korea to become an independent entity, breaking ties with Huobi Global
The Huobi South Korean subsidiary, Huobi Korea, is set to operate as an individual entity after cutting its ties with Huobi Global, according to a report from Korean news outlet News1.
Research Highlight
Research: Bitcoin shrimp, crab cohorts aggressively buying; ETH equivalent cohorts selling
Glassnode data analyzed by CryptoSlate showed a significant trend difference between Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) shrimp and crab cohorts.
BTC fundamentals’ core narrative is the reason that so many investors believe in the asset — and buy regardless of the price. Evidence of this can be seen below as Shrimps (who hold one BTC or less) buy BTC more aggressively than ever before, according to Glassnode on-chain data.
At press time, BTC Shrimps hold a total of 1,200,000 BTC and have bought roughly 90,000 BTC over the last 30 days. Evidence of this trend was seen as BTC Shrimps accumulated 60,000 BTC over 30 days in December 2022.
However, when compared to ETH Shrimps (who hold one ETH or less), the trend is reversed — witnessing a selloff of 300,000 ETH over a 30-day period. ETH Shrimp mentality is vastly different from BTC holders. as Shrimps become net sellers — holding roughly 1,600,000 ETH at press time.
Crypto Market
In the last 24 hours, Bitcoin (BTC) rose 1.35% to trade at $17,186.10, while Ethereum (ETH) was up 3.86% at $1,318.95.
Biggest Gainers (24h)
- FTX Token (FTT): 56.9%
- Aptos (APT): 33.31%
- Nervos Network (CKB): 24.92%
Biggest Losers (24h)
- Lido DAO Token (LDO): -5.51%
- ssv.network (SSV): -5.18%
- Ocean Protocol (OCEAN): -4.98%
