Bitcoin price is still flat, but 'whales' are active 📌

The mood of the cryptocurrency market improved yesterday amid a positive index reaction to the FOMC minutes and news from Genesis Capital, which confirmed a partnership with investment bank Moelis. However, bitcoin is still consolidating and unable to rise above $17,000, signaling that not all the problems caused by the FTX are a thing of the past:

• Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit is creating a $100 million investment fund to support institutional clients during a difficult time for the digital asset industry. Bybit will offer $10 million to market makers and account managers on its platform;
• The head of the Binance exchange, Chanpeng Zhao, said in an interview with Bloomberg today that it will allocate $1 billion to buy 'distressed crypto assets' amid worsening liquidity problems in the cryptocurrency market;
• "CZ" also confirmed that the U.S. exchange will make a takeover bid for bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Voyager amid the withdrawal of bankrupt FTX from the deal. The reports have already been confirmed by Bloomberg;
• Previously, the Binance bid was put on hold amid concerns that it would pose a national security problem for the US. However, Zhao pointed out that the raised issue of concern for US interests were rumors propagated by FTX while 'CZ' itself never shared them.

Controversy continues

• Russian politicians have suggested the possibility of launching a national cryptocurrency exchange within the Moscow Stock Exchange. Russia is working on amendments to the existing law "On Digital Financial Assets."  The effort is reportedly supported by both the Russian Finance Ministry and the Central Bank of Russia. The overriding interest behind them is said to be an initiative to maximize tax revenues from cryptocurrency trading;
• In November, a bill legalizing the mining of cryptocurrencies and their sale was already introduced in Russia. Miners operating within Russia's borders would be able to use foreign platforms. In the latter case, Russian currency controls and regulations would not apply, but would have to be reported to the Russian tax service. Reports have raised concerns in the West about 'war money laundering,' circumventing sanctions and helping to fund Putin's regime;
• A cryptocurrency wallet attributed to an exchange linked to the 2014 Mt. Gox hacking attack that resulted in more than 744,000 BTC being stolen from the exchange on Wednesday conducted its largest transaction since 2017, sending a total of 10,000 BTC, worth about $165 million, to two unidentified recipients according to data from CoinDesk. Alexander Vinnik, the alleged operator of the stolen Mt Gox. Bitcoin, was arrested in 2017 in Greece at the request of the US Department of Justice;
• Singapore has launched an investigation into fraud at cryptocurrency exchange Hodlnaut. Police were looking into allegations of fraud by the company and its directors. The exchange revealed earlier this month that it had more than $13 million in funds blocked in FTX. Holdnaut froze withdrawals in August after reportedly losing nearly $190 million due to the collapse of Luna.

The chart shows the average price of BTC withdrawals from the Binance exchange by investors holding more than 1,000 BTC (known as whales).  The yellow line shows the average withdrawal price since mid-2017, when the Binance exchange was launched. It currently stands at $17,825, showing that this is the first time since March 2020 that the whales have suffered unrealized losses and, like other investors, have 'gone underwater'. In the face of the declines, whales have been sending their BTC reserves to exchanges with a surplus (adjusted for withdrawals) of as much as 5,000 to 7,000 BTC per day , raising concerns about resignations and a desire to sell from even the largest investors. Source: GlassnodeBitcoin chart, H1 interval. The major cryptocurrency is in a sideways trend. Bulls are clearly struggling to prop up the price towards $17,000, raising concerns about a possible further sell-off towards $14,000. The drying up of liquidity may favor sharp price movements when in the Bitcoin market. The main short-term support is the SMA50 (in black), which runs around $16,000. Source: xStation5