If you’re a crypto holder these days and told yourself you would be in it for the long term – well… you are probably questioning some life decisions right now. To say that this week has not been good for the crypto community would be a big understatement. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum have gone down by around 20% just in the past week alone. And we have FTX to thank for that.
For those who haven’t been following what’s gone on this past week, here is the basic timeline:
- FTX was founded in May 2019 and became one of the largest crypto exchanges around.
- FTX also created its own crypto coin – FTT – which, as of November 1st, was valued at $22.
- On November 6th, a balance sheet for Alameda Research – the company behind FTX – was leaked and showed the company’s major liquidity issues.
- The very next day, Binance CEO tweeted that the company would liquidate all of the FTT tokens it owned (a substantial sum due to an investment it made the previous year into FTX) due to those liquidity issues.
- The announcement sent crypto holders into a panic – and shares of FTT started to drop dramatically (and now sit at just 10% of its value a week ago).
- On November 8th, Binance then announced its intention to take over FTX – but eventually backed away.
- Earlier today, FTX announced it would be filing for bankruptcy.
This is all relevant not just to the crypto community, but to the greater tech community as a whole. As if the sentiment in tech wasn’t already bad – with layoffs and budget cuts looming for many of today’s top tech companies – things now get even grimmer as many tech companies today have some tie to the world of Web3.
Things may get even shakier these next few days. Only time will tell. For now, though, maybe it’s a good plan to lose the devices and get out in nature this weekend. The fresh air will do us all some good!
