Bitcoin remained in a narrow trading range of $16,000 to $17,250 on Friday as the ongoing FUD continues to keep price action limited. The Securities Commission of the Bahamas (SCB) was watching FTX earlier this week.
The Financial Crimes Investigation Branch and the regulator worked together to investigate FTX’s violations. The development came after FTX announced that, at the SCB’s request, it would begin allowing Bahamian funds withdrawals, which the commission quickly denied.
However, recent reports show that the SCB had already taken action against the exchange days before it launched its investigation.
The regulatory body announced on November 17 that it had taken custody of the assets of FTX Digital Markets (FDM) by transferring them to a digital wallet under the SCB’s jurisdiction. The commission stated that these actions were taken to protect client funds and interests.
As more regulators began to investigate the bankrupt company, FTX exchange, its situation deteriorated. The collapse of the exchange has caused significant disruptions in the cryptocurrency market.
Following this event, Bitcoin holders may choose to protect their assets by selling them. Furthermore, due to unpredictability, the price could change in any direction.
El Salvador to Start Buying 1 Bitcoin Every Day
El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, announced on November 17 that his country will begin purchasing one Bitcoin per day. El Salvador is said to have completed its final Bitcoin purchase, 80 BTC at $19,000 each, in July 2022, three and a half months ago.
El Salvador has 2,381 BTC with an average purchase price of $43,357, according to BuyBitcoinWorldwide data.
The main factor used to calculate this amount is the president’s announcement of Bitcoin investments. However, no record of the purchases has been made public or available on the network, so it cannot be confirmed.
According to media reports, the country spent more than $103.23 million on Bitcoin purchases. However, because the most popular cryptocurrency is currently valued at around $16,500, this implies a loss of more than $63 million, as the actual value of its stockpile is $39.47 million.
The declaration also responds to Bukele’s earlier comments on the FTX controversy, in which the president of El Salvador stated on November 14 via Twitter that “FTX is the polar opposite of Bitcoin.”
Bukele, a vocal Bitcoin supporter and believer, claimed that Bitcoin was created to combat Ponzi schemes, bank runs, and financial system fraud. Because repurchasing is increasing Bitcoin adoption in the country, this news may boost BTC/USD.
Crypto Market Turnaround
Following the recent drama involving FTX and other exchange platforms, blockchain analytics firm Santiment tweeted a chart outlining the conditions for a crypto market recovery.
According to the tweet, cryptocurrency often succeeds when exchanges are not the primary focus. One of the most significant exchange crashes in history was the FTX crash. As a result, its shockwaves may have “long-lasting shockwaves.”
According to the tweet, the critical turning point for the cryptocurrency industry will occur when attention returns to Bitcoin (BTC), the market leader, and away from exchange tokens.
According to a chart posted on Twitter by Santiment yesterday, the price of BTC/USD typically falls when the social dominance of exchange tokens increases.
Bitcoin Price Prediction
It began trading at $16,827, with a high of $16,832 and a low of $ 16,673. BTC/USD is currently trading at $16,790.00, up by 1.62% in 24 hours. Moreover, its price has dropped by over 4% in a week.
Bitcoin Price & Tokenomics – Source: Tradingview
Bitcoin is consolidating in a wide trading range between $16,000 and $17,200, with a breakout determining future price action. Bitcoin completed a 38.2% Fibonacci retracement at the $18,100 level in the 4-hour timeframe and has now fallen below the 23.6% Fibonacci level of $17,250.
On the downside, Bitcoin’s immediate support is at $17,250, and if the bearish trend continues, the price could fall as low as $15,850. Because the RSI and 50-day moving average indicate a bearish bias, the price of Bitcoin could fall to $15,850 if current support fails to hold.
Bitcoin Price Chart – Source: Tradingview
While the MACD is in a selling zone, recent histograms are contracting, indicating a waning bearish bias. Today, however, selling is visible below the $17,250 level. Increased BTC demand, on the other hand, has the potential to push the BTC/USD price above $18,250 and toward $20,000.
Top Crypto Coins on Pre-Sale
Dash 2 Trade (D2T)
Dash 2 Trade is an Ethereum-based trading intelligence platform that provides traders of all skill levels with real-time analytics and social data, allowing them to make more informed decisions.
It began its token sale three weeks ago and has since raised over $6.5 million. It has also confirmed its first CEX listing on LBank exchange.
1 D2T is currently worth 0.0513 USDT, but this is expected to rise to $0.0533 in the next stage of sales and $0.0662 in the final stage.
Calvaria is a new cryptocurrency gaming project with the potential to dominate the play-to-earn market. Calvaria developers have identified that one of the main barriers to widespread Web3 gaming adoption is that games require users to have technical knowledge of crypto. This means that a lot of users are left out.
As such, Calvaria allows users who don’t hold cryptocurrency to play the game, setting it apart from the competition and enabling a whole new audience to get involved.
Calvaria’s presale is gaining traction, with the project already in stage 4 of 10 and close to $1.8 million in funding. 1 RIA token currently costs $0.025 but this will increase incrementally in each subsequent stage of the presale which is currently in Stage 4.
RobotEra (TARO) is another project that has the potential to change the gaming community and the virtual world. The asset’s presale has only recently begun, but there is already considerable interest from prospective buyers.
RobotEra is a blockchain-based Metaverse where users can create avatars and explore a digital world, and the platform’s native token is TARO. In RobotEra, players can purchase land, build on it, and expand their regions with various assets.
Furthermore, RobotEra has a shared metaverse where users can engage in a variety of activities such as sports, concerts, and other competitive events.
The first stage of TARO’s presale is now live, and it is quickly selling out.
The market is currently in a news-driven environment where the prices of cryptocurrencies have been determined by news agenda rather than fundamentals.
Bitfinex analysts have warned crypto investors to be cautious as bitcoin’s (BTC) recovery over the weekend is not a sign that its correction is over; the asset could witness more bloodshed in the near term.
In the latest Bitfinex Alpha report, experts deemed the market’s reaction this week critical, especially as supply alleviated over the weekend could return when traditional markets open.
“No Man’s Land”
Since Saturday, bitcoin has risen almost 10% from $57,600 to $63,000, closing last week in the green. The asset has surged above the 125-day range low of $60,200, which it broke through earlier this month after news of the German government’s massive BTC selling hit the market.
Market sentiment began to improve after reports that wallets linked to the German government were almost empty. However, the positive sentiment may not be sustained for long as the BTC the German authorities moved to trading desks and exchanges are yet to be sold.
While the supply from Germany appears to have been factored into bitcoin’s market price, Bitfinex analysts believe the end of selling pressure depends on how the involved trading desks execute their trades in the coming days.
Although the shift in sentiment underscores the market’s capacity to integrate new information and adjust expectations quickly, analysts think the market’s reaction over the first two trading days of the week cannot be overlooked for two reasons.
First, the low support level in the $60,200 range has now become a potential resistance line. Second, trading patterns over the past three months suggest that weekends are usually favorable for markets, especially on Saturdays when supply pressure seems to subside.
“We are now in no man’s land until we get clear resolution above or below this level,” the analysts said.
A News-Driven Environment
Besides the potential resistance level and three-month weekend trading pattern, the market is currently in a news-driven environment, where the prices of cryptocurrencies have been determined by news agendas rather than fundamentals.
Since selling pressure concerns are not yet completely obsolete due to upcoming Mt Gox creditor distributions, Bitfinex analysts expect such headlines to continue to have some impact on price movements. As such, the analysts urged investors to exercise caution in their trading strategies.
BlackRock’s IBIT led with $117.25 million in inflows on July 15, also being the most traded Bitcoin ETF.
The US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a daily net inflow of $301 million on July 15th. This extended their winning streak to seven consecutive days amidst a broader market recovery.
None of the ETFs recorded outflows for the day.
Bitcoin ETFs Rake in $16.11B in Net Inflows Since Jan
According to the data compiled by SoSoValue, BlackRock’s IBIT, the top spot Bitcoin ETF by net asset value, recorded the largest net inflows of the day at $117.25 million. IBIT was also the most actively traded Bitcoin ETF on Monday, with a volume of $1.24 billion. Ark Invest and 21Shares’ ARKB came in close behind with net inflows of $117.19 million.
Fidelity’s FBTC experienced net inflows of $36.15 million on Monday, while Bitwise’s BITB saw $15.24 million in inflows. VanEck’s HODL, Invesco and Galaxy Digital’s BTCO, and Franklin Templeton’s EZBC funds also recorded net inflows. Meanwhile, Grayscale’s GBTC and other ETFs, such as Valkyrie’s BRRR, WisdomTree’s BTCW, and Hashdex’s DEFI, registered no flows for the day.
A total of $2.26 billion was traded on Monday. The trading volume for these ETFs was less than in March when it exceeded $8 billion on some days. Meanwhile, these funds have collectively attracted $16.11 billion in net inflow since their January launch.
What’s Next For Bitcoin?
Earlier this month, bitcoin’s price decline was mainly due to fears of massive selling pressure from Mt. Gox and the German government’s BTC sales.
But the assassination attempt on pro-crypto former US President and presumptive Republican candidate Donald Trump at Saturday’s rally seemed to spark a recovery in the world’s largest digital asset, and experts are bullish on the asset’s price trajectory going forward. Bitcoin surged more than 9% over the past week and was currently trading slightly below $64,000.
Veteran trader Peter Brandt discussed bitcoin’s price outlook, suggesting a potential major rally. He referred to a pattern he terms “Hump->Slump->Bump->Dump->Pump” and highlighted that the July 5 double top attempt was a bear trap, confirmed by the July 13 close. He sees a likely continued upward trend but warned that a close below $56,000 would negate this bullish view.
“Bitcoin $BTC could be unfolding its often-repeated Hump…Slump…Bump…Dump…Pump chart construction. Jul 5 attempt at the double top was a bear trap, confirmed by Jul 13 close. Most likely scenario now is that bears are trapped. Close below $56k negates this interpretation”
PeckShield alert reveals LI.FI’s protocol vulnerability is similar to a March 2022 attack, with the same bug recurring.
The decentralized finance (DeFi) platform LI.FI protocol has suffered an exploit amounting to over $8 million.
Cyvers Alerts reported detecting suspicious transactions within the LI.FI cross-chain transaction aggregator.
LI.FI Issues Warning After $8 Million Exploit
LI.FI confirmed the breach in a statement on July 16 via X: “Please do not interact with any http://LI.FI powered applications for now! We’re investigating a potential exploit.” The team clarified that users who did not set infinite approval are not at risk, emphasizing that only those who manually set infinite approvals seem to be affected.
According to Cyvers Alerts, more than $8 million in user funds have been stolen, with the majority being stablecoins. According to on-chain data, the hacker’s wallet holds 1,715 Ether (ETH) valued at $5.8 million and USDC, USDT, and DAI stablecoins.
Cyvers Alerts advised users to revoke relevant authorizations immediately, noting that the attacker is actively converting USDC and USDT into ETH.
Crypto security firm Decurity provided insights into the exploit, stating that it involves the LI.FI bridge. “The root cause is a possibility of an arbitrary call with user-controlled data via depositToGasZipERC20() in GasZipFacet, which was deployed 5 days ago,” Decurity explained on X.
“In general, the risks behind routers, cross-chain swaps, etc. are about token approvals. Raw native assets like (unwrapped) ETH are safe from these kinds of hacks b/c they don’t have approvals as an option. Most users & wallets also no longer do “infinite approvals” which gives a smart contract total control on removing any amount of their tokens. It’s important to understand which tokens you’re approving to which contracts.
This dashboard looks for all transactions of a user that intersects Lifi. Not all of these transactions indicate risk- but you can see how, broadly, integrations & layers of tech (like how Metamask bridge uses Lifi on BSC) can complicate how users do or don’t put their assets at risk. Revoke Cash is the most well known approval manager app.
But it’s also good security practice to simply rotate your address. New addresses start with 0 approvals, so starting fresh by moving your tokens to a fresh address is another good security practice.” – commented Carlos Mercado, Data Scientist at Flipside Crypto.
Recent Exploit Mirrors March 2022 Attack
Further analysis by PeckShield alert revealed that the vulnerability is similar to a previous attack on LI.FI’s protocol that occurred on March 20, 2022. That incident saw a bad actor exploit LI.FI’s smart contract, specifically the swapping feature, before bridging.
The attacker manipulated the system to call token contracts directly within their contract’s context, making users who had given infinite approval vulnerable. This exploit resulted in the theft of approximately 205 ETH from 29 wallets, affecting tokens such as USDC, MATIC, RPL, GNO, USDT, MVI, AUDIO, AAVE, JRT, and DAI.
“The bug is basically the same. Are we learning anything from the past lesson(s)?” PeckShield Alert said in a July 16 X post.
Following the 2022 incident, LI.FI disabled all swap methods in its smart contract and worked on developing a fix to prevent future vulnerabilities. However, the recurrence of a similar exploit raises concerns about the platform’s security measures and whether adequate steps were taken to address the vulnerabilities identified in the previous breach.
LI.FI is a liquidity aggregation protocol that allows users to trade across various blockchains, venues, and bridges.
