- Bitcoin fell to $84,195.13 today, down 2.1 percent despite a positive week.
- Suspected insider wallets shorted BTC with 40x leverage before the drop.
- CFTC says only federally regulated exchanges can offer leveraged trading.
The global crypto market cap fell 1.1% to $2.98 trillion over the past 24 hours. Bitcoin traded at $84,195.13, down 2.1% on the day, though up 0.5% over the past week, after falling below $85,000, then $84,000, in quick succession during Tuesday’s session.
Ethereum changed hands at $2,613.53, down 3.5% in 24 hours and down 2.2% over seven days, briefly dropping below $2,600. BNB fell 2.3% to $767.42. XRP dropped 2.7% to $1.47, down 2.4% over the week. Solana fell 1.9% to $118.32.
Trending Searches
Sui led trending searches, down 4.2% to $1.15. Zcash followed, down 1.5% to $1,329.15, and NEAR Protocol fell 6.0% to $5.01. Among top gainers, Lobster surged 60.2% to $0.07423, Anvil climbed 47.8% to $0.001001, and Numeraire rose 41.4% to $16.86.
Suspected Insider Trading Ahead of BTC Drop
Four newly created wallets deposited a combined $1 million in USDC into Hyperliquid and opened 40x leveraged short positions on 148.49 BTC worth approximately $12.5 million shortly before Bitcoin fell below $84,000, according to Lookonchain, raising suspicion of insider trading. Separately, a trader’s 3,728 ETH long position worth about $9.85 million was fully liquidated within three minutes as ETH broke below $2,600.
Regulatory Developments
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said that under the agency’s proposed rules, only federally regulated crypto exchanges would be permitted to offer leveraged trading, with states limited to providing money transfer-related services. The CFTC’s broader Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeks to build a crypto spot market framework using existing authority, including a voluntary federal exchange registration path that would let non-leveraged spot exchanges continue operating under state money transmission licenses instead.
The UK’s Financial Times reported that Singapore’s Monetary Authority said it does not consider Hyperliquid to fall within its regulatory jurisdiction and that it remains unclear whether the platform is regulated anywhere; Hyperliquid Labs confirmed it is currently unregulated despite being headquartered in Singapore.
Coinbase Relaunches Pro, Completes Deribit Integration
Coinbase announced plans to relaunch its Coinbase Pro trading platform before year-end and confirmed it has completed integration of Deribit, the options exchange it acquired last year, forming Coinbase Global Exchange. The move, based on May CFTC guidance, will let qualified US institutional clients trade options and perpetual contracts through compliant channels previously only available offshore.
Pudgy Penguins Shuts Down Abstract
Pudgy Penguins CEO Luca Netz announced that Abstract, the Ethereum Layer 2 network built by the Pudgy Penguins team, will wind down, with the chain ceasing operations December 15. Abstract said a consumer-focused chain proved difficult to sustain given its limited DeFi ecosystem and weak on-chain liquidity, despite having attracted over 400,000 users and 144 deployed applications; Igloo Inc. will now focus entirely on Pudgy Penguins, Pudgy NFTs and PENGU.
BitMine Nears 5% of ETH Supply
BitMine purchased 12,500 ETH worth approximately $33.65 million from BitGo, bringing its holdings to 4.9% of total ETH supply, just short of its stated “5% alchemy” target.
US Government Wallet Activity
A US government-linked address transferred out 833.6 BTC worth approximately $71.56 million and 40,285 BNB worth about $31.63 million, with the BTC moving to Coinbase Prime, according to on-chain monitoring. The address still holds roughly $28 billion in crypto assets, primarily 324,000 BTC worth about $27.7 billion.
Legal and Security
Cross-border payments firm Conduit sued Tether in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging the stablecoin issuer unjustifiably froze $2.76 million in USDT for more than a year. A trader’s wallet was separately drained of roughly $4 million in assets, with funds laundered through Privacy Cash and Chainflip.
Related: CFTC Opens Consultation on Leveraged Retail Crypto Trading After Clarity Act Stalls
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