It’s a big week for stocks, Bitcoin, Ethereum and crypto in general as Jerome Powell and his Fed mates decide whether they’re whacking on the Santa suits or hurling the markets lumps of coal.

Meanwhile, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (aka SBF) has now been arrested in the Bahamas, according to reports just in. More on that, below.

But first…

The year’s final Federal Open Market Committee meeting takes place on Dec 13 and 14 in the YOO ESS of EH (Washington, DC) and it’s the last time this puppet mastery will occur until February 1, 2023.

And thank Christ for that, really, because they’re always a right barrel of laughs.

But could this time be different? The last four have resulted in market-deflating 75 basis points rate hikes, but many hopeful traders and investors are expecting, if not a “pivot”, a slowdown to 50bps. That’ll only be a chance if the December 13 US CPI data figures show that inflation in the States is continuing to somewhat moderate.

It’s not just the numbers, though – Fed Chairman Powell’s press conference and tone will also be anxiously awaited. Let’s hope he’s in good voice. Maybe then we might see a Bitcoin rally to infin… er, US$18k and beyond. Yeah, maybe.

 

SBF arrested, Do Kwon in… Serbia?

Per Reuters, embattled former FTX boss Sam Bankman-Fried has just been arrested by Bahamas police and taken into custody.

Bahamas authorities reportedly received formal notification from the United States of criminal charges against him. The actual charges are as yet undisclosed.

 

Earlier today, SBF had said in a Twitter Spaces chat that he wouldn’t be making an appearance in person at this week’s House committee hearing in the US capital.

And that was apparently due to the “paparazzi effect” his presence would cause. Yep, he’s always got everyone’s best interests at heart. Then again, maybe he just wanted to dial in while he played League of Legends. Or maybe Illuvium’s new Overworld beta release.

“I didn’t ever try to commit fraud,” Bankman-Fried said in a November 30 interview at the New York Times’ Dealbook Summit, adding that he doesn’t think he has any criminal liability.

 

Meanwhile, Do Kwon, another “much-loved” crypto industry figure – the founder of the Terra Luna project and the man seen as largely responsible for its collapse earlier in the year – is apparently currently located in Serbia. According to South Korean online publication Chosun.

Kwon has been something of a crypto fugitive ever since the Terra collapse and is being hunted worldwide by South Korean authorities and Interpol. Meanwhile he keeps showing up on Twitter and the odd podcast and interview here and there, commenting on SBF and FTX.

For instance, here he is, in a Twitter thread that suggests the FTX sister company Alameda Research was responsible for a planned financial attack that led to the collapse of the Terra ecosystem stablecoin UST.

James Bond, Jason Bourne and Bitboy Crypto are all heading to Serbia to confront him there, angrily demand their money back and be told off by security staff, while generating great clicks for their social content. Possibly.

 

Top 10 overview

With the overall crypto market cap at US$886 billion, pretty flat since this time yesterday, here’s the current state of play among top 10 tokens – according to CoinGecko.

Bitcoin and pals have actually made something of a recovery since this time yesterday.

BTC was languishing down below US$17k for much of Monday, but perhaps the hopium surrounding a potential Fed rate-hike slowdown this week has sections of the market believing in an end-of-year rally.

December’s historically been a decent month for Bitcoin and crypto on average, although Dec 2021 certainly wasn’t (-18.75%), so past performance really is no indicator here. In fact, forget we even mentioned it.

Two very different takes from two very different Crypto Twitter trader/analysts here:

 

Uppers and downers: 11–100

Sweeping a market-cap range of about US$6.1 billion to about US$329 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

• Stacks (STX), (market cap: US$422 million) +9%

• Bitcoin SV (BSV), (mc: US$900 million) +7%

• GMX (GMX), (mc: US$489 million) +6%

• Dash (DASH), (mc: US$539 million) +4%

• Lido DAO (LDO), (mc: US$861 million) +3%

 

DAILY SLUMPERS

• Trust Wallet (TWT), (market cap: US$981 million) -11%

• Axie Infinity (AXS), (market cap: US$880 million) -4%

• Chiliz (CHZ), (mc: US$739 million) -4%

• Tezos (XTZ), (mc: US$874 million) -3%

• Aptos (APT), (mc: US$588 million) -3%

 

Around the blocks

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

Some commentary on SBF’s arrest already rolling in…

Moving on…

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