Weekly Rollup - November 22, 2023

Market Highlights

• CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao and Binance have plead guilty to federal charges involving violations of anti-money laundering laws, leading to him stepping down as CEO and for Binance to withdraw from the U.S. market.
• On Thursday, the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) report revealed the annual inflation rate to have slowed down to 3.2% from 3.7% in September.
• BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, filed a form S-1 registration for a spot Ethereum (ETH) ETF with the SEC on the same day.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin (BTC) started the week strong surging to a high of US$37,800 shortly after the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its Consumer Price Index (CPI) report on Thursday. It revealed the annual inflation rate to have slowed down to 3.2% from 3.7% in September, beating the estimated 3.3%. On a month-to-month basis, inflation was unchanged after a 0.4% jump in September.

BTC was unable to hold the line however after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) missed the 8-day window to approve a spot Bitcoin ETF, delaying the decision.

BTC closed the week at US$37,465, down 1.2% over the last seven days.

Ethereum

Ethereum (ETH) traded similarly to BTC for majority of the week, hitting a high of US$2,090 after Thursday’s CPI report, before closing the week at US$1,985, up a very slight 0.2%.

Meanwhile BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, has set its sights on Ethereum after filing a form S-1 registration for a spot Ethereum ETF with the SEC.

Altcoins

After 4 weeks of consecutive rallying, market sector performance finally slowed down. Smart Contract Platforms was the only sector to stay positive, adding on 2.5% week-on-week while Web3 and Currencies fell 3.7% and 2.9%, respectively. As BTC loses momentum, the powerful altcoin rally also begins to fade.

Amongst Smart Contract Platforms Skale (SKL) and Kaspa (KAS) were the biggest gainers, adding on 96.0% and 33.4%, respectively. Skale pumped after its recent partnership with Cryptopia which will emerge with a free-to-play-and-earn game.

Defi players, Synthetix Network (SNX) and Maple (MPL) gained 34.8% and 26.3%, respectively. SNX soared after it unveiled its plans for Perps V3 which will unlock new features such as multi-collateral and cross-chain lending.

Finally, decentralised GPU rendering protocol, Render (RNDR) and AI-focused protocol, Fetch.ai (FET) each gained 45.2% and 22.3%, respectively. RNDR’s surge in price followed a new listing on Binance Japan last week.

In Other News

• Crypto exchange Bittrex Global, announced that it will be winding down operations in the next two weeks, on December 4th. The announcement was made nine months after its United States-based arm, Bittrex, said it planned to wind down operations.
• Taking a step towards transforming asset and wealth management, J.P. Morgan and Apollo Global, through their collaboration Onyx, have introduced a portfolio management system proof-of-concept in partnership with Avalanche as part of the Monetary Authority of Singapore's Project Guardian.
• Digital asset investment products saw inflows for the eighth consecutive week after netting another US$176m. Bitcoin (BTC) represented 88.1% of the funds followed by Solana (SOL) which represented 7.7%.

Regulatory

• Binance is set to withdraw from the U.S. market and has agreed to pay a hefty US$4.3 billion, marking the largest penalty in the history of the Treasury Department. This resolution, announced by the Department of Justice on Wednesday, stemmed from a comprehensive criminal investigation spanning several years into the company and its leadership.

• Additionally, CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao resigned and plead guilty to anti-money laundering violations, consenting to a separate US$50 million fine. The terms of the plea agreement further mandate that Zhao refrains from any current or future involvement with the company for a minimum of three years. There were no allegations of misuse of user funds of market manipulation.

• The SEC filed charges against crypto exchange Kraken on Monday, for “operating Kraken’s crypto trading platform as an unregistered securities exchange, broker, dealer, and clearing agency." Kraken has since responded.