Accusations and Layoffs as Bitcoin Slides to $20,000

 

Bitcoin prices fell for a third straight day and a rebounce in Chainlink’s LINK token disappeared – as cryptocurrency industry accusations continued to emerge and stocks slid.

Bitcoin (BTC) fell for a third straight day, drifting back toward $20,000, trading in tandem with the U.S. stock market. It was such a drama that as the cryptocurrency industry continues to deal with the fallout from the recent storm in the digital asset market. the price of BTC is now trading at less than a third of its ATH last year.

The CEO of futures cryptocurrency exchange CoinFLEX has accused Roger Ver, a Bitcoin Cash backer and prominent investor, of owing him $47 million in stablecoin USDC. Ver had tweeted earlier Tuesday that “some rumors have been spreading” that he owed a counterparty; instead, he said, the counterparty “owes me  tons of money.”

And following reports that cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Global may lay off more than 30 percent of its workforce, an official at rival OKX announced the company’s plans to add 30 percent more employees.

“Over the past two weeks, we have seen the worst of the bear market,” Walter Teng, an associate in digital asset strategy at independent investment research firm FundStrat, wrote in a newsletter.
 

LINK Rally Fades

In a weekly report, Norwegian analyst firm Arcane Research rounded up a series of discouraging indicators and forecasts. Bitcoin miner prices “have fallen off a cliff” and could continue to fall, meaning miners may eventually have to “abandon their orders” amid declining cash flows.

Bitcoin spot trading volume has fallen 59 percent in the past nine days. Growing industry woes are “leading to a vicious cycle of withdrawals from other centralized lending platforms.” In the digital asset market outside of bitcoin, LINK for the ckchain oracle project Chainlink rose as much as 8% earlier in the day after the Robinhood (HOOD) trading platform agreed to list it. Later in the day, however, the rally faded and LINK fell 2.1%.

In traditional markets, a sell-off in technology stocks led U.S. stocks lower as concerns about high inflation intensified and a key index of consumer confidence fell to a 16-month low.
U.S. crude futures rose 2 percent to $111.84 a barrel in New York trading as leaders of the Group of Seven nations discussed plans to limit oil prices. Gold slipped 0.2 percent to $1,821 an ounce.