Bitcoin made a dramatic comeback on Wednesday, approaching $26,000 after falling below the important support level of $25,000 for the first time in three months on Tuesday. Ethereum has also recovered, surpassing $1,600, while the top ten non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies have gained, with Toncoin leading the charge with a remarkable 24-hour jump of more than 12%. This bounce comes after a recent panic sell-off sparked by the approaching liquidation of the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, which is slated to dump its $3.4 billion in crypto holdings before the end of the year.
According to CoinMarketCap data, as of 07:30 a.m. in Hong Kong, Bitcoin had risen 3.02% in the previous 24 hours to $25,867.44, representing a 0.36% increase for the week. On Tuesday, the world’s largest cryptocurrency briefly fell to a nearly three-month low of $24,930.30 before rebounding to a high of $26,451.94.
Ether recovered similarly, increasing 3.10% to $1,595.00 after falling 2.28% in the previous seven days. On Tuesday, the second-largest cryptocurrency achieved a 24-hour high of $1,619.11.
According to crypto research firm K33, market sentiment currently mimics “the late-stage bear market from 2015 to 2019,” with “a sustained period of poor momentum” bringing the fear and greed index to a nine-month low. K33 also mentioned the expected sell-side pressure on FTX’s assets, which include $560 million BTC, $192 million ETH, and $1.16 billion SOL. Mt. Gox trustees and US Silk Road Bitcoins are expected to exert additional sell-side pressure.
FTX, which entered bankruptcy in November 2022, may gain court approval on Wednesday to liquidate its $3.4 billion in crypto holdings. Some argue that the current sell-off in anticipation of the liquidation was an overreaction.
According to Greg Moritz, co-founder and COO of crypto hedge fund Alt Tab Capital, “FTX, having an interest in acquiring the highest price for its assets, will likely go about the liquidation in an orderly and rational way that minimizes the effect on market pricing.” He went on to say that the actual impact of FTX’s anticipated liquidation on the crypto market will be minor and gradual.
Meanwhile, all of the top ten non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies gained in the last 24 hours, with Toncoin topping the way, up 12.49% to $1.84 and 3.73% for the week. Toncoin is the native token of the Open Network (TONNE), a blockchain-based decentralized network founded by the Telegram messaging service. TONNE has increased in value by 30% in the last month and is going to present alongside Telegram at the Token2049 event in Singapore on “Transforming Telegram to Web3 with Toncoin.”
The overall crypto market value climbed by 2.54% in the last 24 hours to $1.03 trillion, with trading volume increasing by 9.22% to $35.33 billion.
