As the American voting population heads into the mid-term elections this Tuesday, the crypto markets took a tumble.
But it likely wasn’t red and blue on the markets’ minds. Rather, fears of another bout of market contagion have driven prices down amid speculation of liquidity problems in both arms of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire.
The world’s second-largest crypto exchange FTX and associated private equity firm Alameda Reasearch – both headed by Bankman-Fried – have become embroiled in controversy over their balance sheets. The market has grown concerned about FTX's liquidity and FTX Token (FTT) has dipped 20% in the past 24 hours.
Bitcoin suffered a 5% dip, bringing the coin sharply below the key US$20,000 price point, with the next major support line drawn at US$19,600.
Ethereum also dipped around 5%, breaking below the US$1,500 price point to change hands just above the current support line of US$1,480.