Special Report on the FTX Debacle

It was one of the most shocking weeks in crypto history. On November 2, CoinDesk leaked Alameda’s balance sheet, showing that $5.2 billion of the trading firm’s $14.6 billion of assets (36%) were held in FTT, a token issued by the now-bankrupt FTX crypto exchange.

In light of these revelations, Binance chose to sell a portion of FTT on its books, which spooked investors and prompted a bank run on FTX. By November 8, FTX had halted withdrawals, and the price of FTT had dropped more than 85% since the CoinDesk report came out. After failing to raise capital, on November 11, more than 130 entities tied to FTX.com, FTX US, and Alameda Research filed for bankruptcy, with the Alameda petition listing assets and liabilities of at least $10 billion each.

As of Monday’s close, Bitcoin and Ethereum are down by 19.42% and 20.85% week-over-week, respectively. In addition, among the top cryptoassets within the major categories, the most hurt is Solana, which declined by 52.82% over the same period. In this report, we will walk you through the events of the FTX debacle and what to expect in the coming weeks and months.

Figure 1: Weekly TVL and Price Performance of Major Crypto Categories

Source: Messari (Close Price) and DeFi Llama, Data as of November 14, 2022

Key takeaways

• More than $1.5 billion in liquidations between November 6-11.

• Ether’s net issuance since the Merge has turned negative.

• FTX US, FTX.com, and Alameda filed for bankruptcy with a multi-billion dollar hole in their balance sheets.
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• Binance among a number of crypto exchanges to provide proof-of-reserves.

Spot and Derivatives Markets

Figure 2: Total liquidations (longs and shorts) over the past three months

Source: Coinglass, Data as of November 13, 2022

If we look at the derivatives market, between November 6 and 11, we saw more than $1.5 billion of liquidations (primarily longs) as BTC’s price breached below $16,000 for the first time since November 2020. This event constituted the most significant long liquidations in recent months (see Figure 2), indicating that many investors were positioned to the upside amidst the FTX debacle.

On-chain Indicators

Figure 3: BTC percent supply in profit

Source: Glassnode, Data as of November 13, 2022

Figure 3 highlights the percentage of the current BTC circulating supply in profit. This metric represents an oscillator that allows us to understand the current state of the market better. Historically, values above 95% have coincided with market tops, while values below 50% have preceded past cycles’ bottoms. On November 9, the BTC percent supply in profit reached 45.93%, the lowest level since March 2020.

Next Week’s Calendar

Read our full report on the FTX debacle here

Research Newsletter

Each week the 21Shares Research team will publish our data-driven insights into the crypto asset world through this newsletter. Please direct any comments, questions, and words of feedback to research@21shares.com

Disclaimer

The information provided does not constitute a prospectus or other offering material and does not contain or constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of any offer to buy securities in any jurisdiction. Some of the information published herein may contain forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties and that actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. The information contained herein may not be considered as economic, legal, tax or other advice and users are cautioned to base investment decisions or other decisions solely on the content hereof.