Even in bankruptcy, FTX drives the market down. If the Bitcoin price managed to reach a brief higher at $49,000 THE first day of trading of spot BTC ETFs (last January 11), it is since the sellers who have led the market, with bitcoin returning below $41,000. According to information released today, this sales pressure could be partly due to the defunct FTX platform. Indeed, its liquidators would have massively sold shares of theGrayscale Bitcoin ETF (his old fund GBTCfreshly converted).
FTX reportedly liquidates its 22 million shares of Grayscale’s Bitcoin ETF
Since January 10, 2024, Grayscale Investments is one of the lucky 11 to have received the green light from the Securities and Exchange Commission (DRY) For list their Bitcoin ETF on the stock exchange for cash. In the specific case of Grayscale, it was more precisely the conversion of his fund Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) launched in 2013.
If, with that of BlackRock, the Grayscale ETF experienced high volumes (breaking its records as GBTC), these volumes tended to be selling rather than buying. And for good reason !
Indeed, according to “private data” that CoinDesk recently examined, the platform FTX (placed in bankruptcy since November 2022) would have sold all its 22 million shares of the BTC ETF spot by Grayscale! This represents almost1 billion dollars sales alone.
As CoinDesk explains, the selling pressure should “ease” from now on, now that FTX has finished its exceptional liquidation, due to the needs of its bankruptcy. In fact, there remains no more part from GBTC, which became a spot Bitcoin ETF, from Grayscale to the crypto-exchange founded by Sam Bankman-Fried.