Right, where were we? On holiday*. But anyway, Crypto 2023 – it’s kicked off with a near +0.5% explosion for Bitcoin and it’s clearly going to be up only from here. Then again, macro/recession fears and more FTX fallout might have something to say about that fanciful idea. Meanwhile, Solana has surged overnight (AEDT).

(*Thanks to Gregor “Making Me Look Bad, Man” Stronach for filling in so stupendously well in this little alternative-finance, magic-internet-money corner of Stockhead. Wanna time share it?)

 

Big Winkx vs Bazza

But speaking of crypto fallout, aka contagion, the concerning Digital Currency Group/Genesis/Gemini nexus is back in the spotlight early doors this year, highlighted by one of those large-noggined Winklevii blokes.

Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder of the Gemini crypto custody and exchange platform has penned an open letter to Barry Silbert, the CEO of Digital Currency Group – the world’s largest digital assets manager.

Posting the letter on Twitter, Winklevoss noted that the Genesis trading platform (owned by DCG) owes Gemini US$900 million, which Gemini lent as part of the Gemini yield-generating program called Earn. That program, incidentally, stopped paying its investors in November.

“For the past six weeks, we have done everything we can to engage with you in a good faith and collaborative manner in order to reach a consensual resolution for you to pay back the $900 million that you owe,” wrote Winklevoss, adding:

“Every time we ask you for tangible engagement, you hide behind lawyers, investment bankers, and process.”

Winklevoss also made the point that January 2 marked “47 days since Genesis halted withdrawals” for customers on its platform.

Silbert has since responded, which you can see below.

What does all this mean for crypto? It’s a concern considering how big a player DCG is in the space. Are we about to see another major player crumble? Time will tell but perhaps Goldman Sachs is paying close attention.

What’s also very concerning for Gemini, though, is the fact it was sued by investors about a week ago, which Cointelegraph covered well here. The allegations? Fraud and violations of securities laws. Familiar crypto themes from 2022, unfortunately.

Anyway, sorry to start the year with more squeaky-bottom-inducing crypto-contagion clouds… let’s sweep it under the, er, rug, for the moment and focus on some raw price action instead.

 

Top 10 overview

With the overall crypto market cap at US$841 billion, up about 1% since this time yesterday, here’s the current state of play among top 10 tokens – according to CoinGecko.

Bitcoin, Ethereum and the rest of the crypto majors are all clearly tip-toeing into the new year waiting for some sort of impetus. And because they clearly can’t make up their own mind right now, that guidance might have to come from the traditional financial areas such as the S&P, Nasdaq, DXY.

That said, there are those who believe Bitcoin often frontruns recoveries in the stock markets. In a recent podcast, Michael Ippolito from Blockworks, for instance, alluded to that as a possibility to watch out for this year. (You can check out his thesis at about the 12:19 mark in the video below.)

Anything else to note in the majors? Yes, actually –  a new entry. Last time we were poking about in here, Polygon (MATIC) was holding on to a top 10 slot. It’s just been usurped by the crypto exchange OKX, whose OKB utility token has made a 6% daily surge.

What gives? OKX was founded in China but is based in the Seychelles. According to reports it’s apparently been able to gain some traction amid the collapse of FTX and also perhaps thanks to attempts by it, and other global exchanges, to improve transparency of reserves and operations.

The exchange has another token (Why?? It’s complicated) called OKT, and that’s pumping (relatively), too.

 

Uppers and downers: 11–100

Sweeping a market-cap range of about US$7 billion to about US$282 million in the rest of the top 100, let’s find some of the biggest 24-hour gainers and losers at press time. (Stats accurate at time of publishing, based on CoinGecko.com data.)

DAILY PUMPERS

• Solana (SOL), (market cap: US$4.1 billion) +13%

• Lido DAO (LDO), (mc: US$2.3 billion) +12%

• BitDAO (BIT), (mc: US$532 million) +12%

• OKC (OKT), (mc: US$500 million) +7%

• Aptos (APT), (mc: US$488 million) +6%

 

So, why is the FTX/Alameda-roiled Solana (SOL) token having a little new year frisson? Hard to say, actually. But maybe it has something to do with a recent show of support from crypto god and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

 

DAILY SLUMPERS

• Toncoin (TON), (market cap: US$3.3 billion) -3%

• Leo Token (LEO), (market cap: US$3.2 billion) -1%

• Internet Computer (ICP), (mc: US$1.1 billion) -1%

 

Around the blocks

Some randomness and pertinence that stuck with us on our morning moves through the Crypto Twitterverse…

Read MoreBitcoinEthereum

You might be interested in