Bitcoin on track for 13% weekly gain as investors likely priced in Genesis bankruptcy

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) is on track to end the week over 13% higher, despite yet another cryptocurrency firm falling victim to the recent downturn in the digital asset market.

The parent company of troubled crypto lender Genesis filed for bankruptcy, buckling under losses from the collapse of FTX and Three Arrows Capital.

Markus Thielen, head of research at crypto services provider Matrixport, said the market appears to have priced in the Genesis bankruptcy. “With Genesis filing for bankruptcy, this removes a negative overhang from the market, and crypto investors can finally focus on fundamentals.”

In a weekly report, Thielen said “the fundamental reason why crypto is outperforming this year is because transaction fees and revenues are increasing again.”

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) rose as much as 7% on Friday to $22.56K, its highest in more than four months. Global crypto market cap is currently $1.04T, up 5.9% over Thursday, according to CoinMarketCap.

FTX Updates

• FTX Token (FTT-USD) shot up after new FTX chief John Ray said he’s mulling potentially reviving the bankrupt exchange as customers suggested the move would recover more value than liquidating assets.
• FTX debtors identified ~$5.5B of sellable assets as part of the new leadership recovers lost assets to repay creditors.
• Financial services provider Monex Group’s CEO Oki Matsumoto expressed interest in FTX Japan.

Contagion Continues…

• News site CoinDesk is exploring a partial or full sale of the firm. It is a unit of Digital Currency Group, which is also the parent firm of Genesis.
• Genesis owes its top 50 creditors over $3.5B, one of whom – New Finance Income Fund from VanEck – has ties to two Fairfax County pension funds.
• Tokens.com (OTCQB:SMURF) disclosed that it has an open loan facility with troubled crypto lender Genesis. Silvergate Capital (SI) said it has minimal exposure to Genesis.
• Coinbase (COIN) will halt operations in Japan due to volatile market conditions, days after it announced a second round of job cuts.

Regulatory Scanner

• The SEC charged Avraham Eisenberg with price manipulation of the MNGO token, alleging that he stole ~$116M in crypto from exchange Mango Markets.
• The DoJ charged Anatoly Legkodymov, founder of exchange Bitzlato, with facilitating an illegal money transmitting business that allegedly processed over $700M of illicit funds.
• Binance was listed as one of the top three receiving and sending counterparties in an order against Bitzlato.

Bitcoin price

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) jumped 7.5% to $22.69K at 5.48 pm ET, while ether (ETH-USD) gained 6.8% to $1.65K.

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) is approaching overbought territory and appears to have formed a new support level at $21K. SA author Bitcoin Magazine PRO believes bitcoin’s ever-increasing scarcity will lead to higher demand. “Despite negative news and drop in bitcoin price, our bullish conviction for its long-term value proposition remains unfazed.”

Crypto-related stocks that ended higher on Friday include: Soluna (SLNH) +20.9%, Cipher Mining (CIFR) +16%, Hut 8 Mining (HUT) +15.7%, Coinbase (COIN) +11.6%, Marathon Digital (MARA) +10%.