Crypto space seems to stabilize

Now the 36th-largest coin by market capitalization, HBAR, native asset of Hedera Hashgraph, is hammering out a defiant rally in recent days.

HBAR gained 4.5% in the past 24 hours. It is +16% over the past seven days, a period in which that other smart-contracts platform – Ethereum – saw its native asset rise 10%.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin, as of 7:30 a.m. (EST) on Thursday, had recorded a 5% gain since last week at this time, a scene straight out of "Titanic."

HBAR sinking below a nickel then bobbing back up might not seem like the splashiest-ever move, particularly when compared to Chiliz, for which things are going swimmingly. CHZ surged 47% in seven days – thanks to the tokenized-sports-fandom project's ties to soccer and with the World Cup about to begin.

The most powerful rocket in the world, NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), carrying a crew-less Orion craft, had a successful liftoff earlier this week. The lunar mission is set to last 25 days. Probably not heading to the moon is a bamboo raft of cryptos perceived to be connected with FTX.

Primarily among them is Solana, flat over 24 hours, and Serum, down 14% in that span, as of 8:10 a.m. (EST).

Fallout from the collapse of FTX continues to spread. Crypto lender BlockFi is preparing to file for bankruptcy within days, according to Bloomberg, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

This morning it has surfaced that the lending arm of the crypto investment bank Genesis Global Trading is pausing new loan originations and redemptions (CNBC).

Damages to crypto firms and counterparties are piling up: FTX may have more than 1 million creditors, according to an updated bankruptcy filing.

In a new twist on DCA, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele said that, starting tomorrow, the country would buy one Bitcoin per day.

Many scorned investors are turning their backs on crypto, but Bukele sees the FTX-related turbulence as an opportunity to strengthen his case for BTC adoption.

He’s not alone. Jack Mallers, CEO of mobile payments player Strike, insisted in an interview yesterday that the world is coming to realize the entire crypto industry is one giant piggyback off/arbitrage on the first/largest digital asset.

"There’s Bitcoin – and there’s everything else," Mallers, a notorious maximalist, proclaimed.

That latter chunk of assets amounts to about $540 billion. Add in BTC's market value of about $320 billion and the total crypto market cap gets to $860 billion. On Nov. 10, total market cap fell to a recent low of $830 billion. In the four days that followed the FTX collapse, $270 billion left the space, per Chainalysis, examining all crypto/USD trades last week as jittery investors bailed.

Outflows have now stabilized back to pre-FTX-implosion levels. “Many market fundamentals remain stable,” Chainalysis said.

Nevertheless, investors are anxiously eyeing developments that could sink prices further, CoinDesk said.

“Right now, most of the institutional investors we talk to are content to sit on the sidelines and just wait,” said Ben McMillan, CIO of IDX Digital Assets. “They haven't sworn off the space, but they're not doing anything in crypto right now especially against this macro backdrop. I think there's no question investors are waiting for the next shoe to drop.”

He added: “I've had several calls already today about Genesis halting withdrawals.”