November closes as one of the worst months for ETH or BTC, SBF claims the FTX collapse was a mistake

The biggest news in the crypto-verse for Dec. 1 includes November finishing as the second-worst month for Bitcoin and fourth-worst for Ethereum, SBF shifting blame to Alameda Research for the FTX collapse, and 15 million Bitcoin retreating to self-custody wallets, leaving only 22% of total supply liquid.

CryptoSlate Top Stories

November was the second-worst month for Bitcoin, fourth worst for Ethereum

According to CryptoSlate data, November 2022 was the second-worst month of the year for Bitcoin (BTC) and the fourth-worst month of 2022 for Ethereum (ETH).

During November, BTC lost around 18% of its value. According to Glassnode, the investors witnessed the fourth largest capitulation on record with a 7-day realized loss of $10.16 billion. On the other hand, ETH fell by almost 20% in the same month to see as low as $1,100 on Nov. 10.

SBF shifts blame to Alameda, claims ‘I didn’t knowingly commingle funds’

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) spoke live at the New York Times Dealbook event and stated that he didn’t “knowingly commingle funds.” He said:

“I was surprised just how big Alameda’s position was… I wasn’t trying to commingle funds.”

SBF blamed the “accounting mistake” that brought the end of FTX on poor internal dashboards for poor management of funds.

Fastest rate of change: 15M BTC goes into self custody

Glassnode data shows that around 78% of the total BTC supply is illiquid. The amount equals 15 million coins and leaves less than 22% of all BTC changing hands.

This metric indicates that investors have been pulling their BTC into their custodial wallets and moving away from exchanges.

CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam snubs Ethereum, claims only Bitcoin is a commodity

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Rostin Behnam said that BTC is the only crypto asset that should be classified as a commodity.

Even though Behnam considered ETH a commodity in May, he changed his narrative this time and implied that ETH was not a commodity.

BlackRock lost $24M in FTX collapse

Investment management company BlackRock’s CEO Larry Fink gave an interview with Andrew Sorkin and revealed that the company lost $24 million in the FTX collapse. However, Fink said the loss was slight and not a part of BlackRock’s core business.

Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz says SBF should be jailed.

Galaxy Digital’s CEO Mike Novogratz described the FTX collapse as “a crisis of confidence” and said that SBF should be jailed for his role in the event.

“It was delusional. Let’s be really clear. Sam was delusional about what happened and his culpability in it,” says @novogratz. “He needs to be prosecuted. He will spend time in jail. And it wasn’t just Sam. You don’t pull this off with one person.” pic.twitter.com/0SSh1r8XIL

— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) December 1, 2022

According to Novogratz, SBF has a delusional personality and is prone to “grandiosity.”

Italy to impose 26% crypto gains tax from 2023

Italy’s proposed budget for 2023 revealed its plans to tighten crypto regulations. According to the proposal, the country will start taxing all digital currency profits higher than €2,000 with a 26% tax levy.

To encourage citizens and entities to declare their crypto holdings, the proposal also states that investors who declare their digital asset portfolios by the end of the year will be subjected to a 14% tax rate instead of the default 26%.

Coinbase Wallet says Apple requested 30% of all NFT transfer gas fees

On Dec. 1, Coinbase Wallet revealed that Apple requested 30% of all NFT transfer gas fees before allowing Coinbase Wallet to run its latest update.

You might have noticed you can’t send NFTs on Coinbase Wallet iOS anymore. This is because Apple blocked our last app release until we disabled the feature. 🧵

— Coinbase Wallet (@CoinbaseWallet) December 1, 2022

Coinbase said Apple’s request was “clearly not possible.” At the time of writing, there are no updates on the matter.

Shady meme coins blamed for spike in dead crypto projects in 2021

CoinGecko data revealed that 3,322 cryptocurrencies listed on its database in 2021 have failed.

CoinGecko said it expects around 947 projects to die every year. The unusually high number recorded in 2021 resulted from the “meme coin season,” which was prevalent last year.

Research Highlight

Research: Bitcoin halving pattern suggests price will cross above higher, realized value

A total of 210,000 blocks are mined nearly every four years, which sets the BTC halving time. The next halving will be the third one, which will take place on Mar. 25, 2024. Even though the next halving period is almost a year later, on-chain data suggests that BTC could revert higher above its realized price.

Realized price is a metric calculated by taking the realized total market cap and dividing it by the number of BTC in circulation. If the actual price exceeds the realized one, it indicates a bearish market and is perceived as a sell indicator. On the other hand, if the situation is vice versa, it is seen as a bullish sign and a buy indicator.

Glassnode data analyzed by CryptoSlate revealed continuous extensive periods of the Realized Price being below the actual price while approaching the halving events. This has repeated itself twice already, and the current metrics seem like they will turn out the same as the previous two occasions.

News from around the Cryptoverse

Ropsten Network to shut down at the end of the month

According to the Ethereum Foundation’s announcement from Nov. 30, the Ropsten network will be shut down since validator participation rates have been declining steadily, and the network has been deprecated. The last remaining validators will be removed during the Dec. 15-31 period.

Auros Global fails to pay the loan due to the FTX collapse

Auros Global published a thread on its Twitter account and revealed that it is having trouble paying a wETH loan worth $3.08 due to FTX’s insolvency.

Tether has provided loans of $6.1 billion since Sept. 30

According to Wall Street Journal, Tether (USDT) provided $6.1 billion worth of loans as of Sept. 30. This number was at $4.1 billion at the end of 2021. Tether said it only lent to specific eligible customers and required its customers to post lots of “extremely liquid” collateral.

Russian bank adds crypto support.

Russia’s largest bank Sberbank announced that it added MetaMask support, according to WatcherGuru.

Demand for Bitcoin miners rise in Russia. 

According to local news sources, the demand for ASIC mining machines has skyrocketed in the last quarter. Legal entities began to buy 30% more equipment in one transaction than they did at the beginning of the year.

Crypto Market

In the last 24 hours, Bitcoin (BTC) decreased by -1.09%  to trade at $16,888, while Ethereum (ETH) decreased by -1.8% to trade at $1,270.

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