By Marco Oehrl
Investing.com - The collapse of FTX gave Bitcoin a new low as the world's largest cryptocurrency. The rest of the market reacted similarly, as confidence in BTC & Co suffered considerably. What really happened, however, has not been clarified beyond doubt to this day.
Both Binance and the incompetence of Sam Bankman-Fried are traded as possible causes, but there is also another, more than plausible explanation - follow the money.
The founder and CEO of Binance Changpeng Zhao (CZ) recently denied that he was responsible for the debacle - there is no competition between crypto exchanges. In doing so, he is fighting back against accusations that it was he who brought down FTX, allegedly to take market share from Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF).
CZ argues that the market is simply so huge that it would be nonsensical to poach each other's clientele at this point:
"We don't focus on competitors because it's a waste of time and resources when the industry has only touched 6% of the population. We want multiple exchanges, multiple blockchains, multiple wallets, etc, to co-exist in the ecosystem."
From his perspective, it was SBF himself who brought the entire industry into disrepute with his machinations:
"SBF is one of the greatest fraudsters in history, he is also a master manipulator when it comes to the media and key opinion leaders."
Morgan Creek Capital CEO Mark Yusko wholeheartedly agrees that SBF is a fraud:
"I’m 100% convinced, and I have evidence of it, given that I’m a large investor in one of the companies he defrauded directly."
From his point of view, SBF had not lost track of the finances, as has been spreading through the media. Yusko assumes that FTX's rise and fall was planned from the beginning.
It was a staging that aimed to lay the foundation for global regulation - to regain control, defend the dominance of central banks, and make CBDCs a success story.
However, the goal of the blockchain movement is independence from governments and banks. A goal that was laughed at 10 years ago, but may increasingly become a real threat, as Yusko explains:
"The fact that SBF is on a press tour, and not in a jail cell is incomprehensible.
It is certainly possible that there was an intent by someone to have this be an example set so that regulators could come in and punish the industry…
This debacle is a fraud perpetrated by, I believe, someone above the useful idiots."
Yusko assumes that some U.S. politicians are involved in the matter. SBF declared in media terms before the FTX collapse that it would donate $1 billion to the next U.S. election campaigns. If so much money was already flowing officially, what happened unofficially? Why did FTX invest in the virtually meaningless Farmington State Bank, whose deposits suddenly soared 700%?
According to Yusko, this is precisely the starting point for targeted money laundering, and so he suspects that much of the $8B in disappearing customer funds was funneled to its new owners through this and similar channels.
Bitcoin technical price points
Bitcoin is currently down -1.41% at a BTC/USD price of $16,761, while the weekly loss amounts to -0.75%.
Yesterday, the cryptocurrency managed to get itself into the safe zone with a daily close above the 23.6% Fibo retracement of $16,986. However, today the negative momentum increased and thus the price is in a downward movement towards the low of November 28, which provides support at $16,013.
If this is broken, the focus will shift to the cycle low of $15,504, which was formed on November 21.
Only with a sustained, confirmed daily close above the 23.6% Fibo retracement, a recovery towards the 38.2% Fibo retracement of $17,841 becomes possible. Above that, the next resistances are at the 55-day MA of $18,220, followed by the 50% Fibo retracement of $18,533.