In my country we have a saying that goes: "when the river sounds it is because it brings stones" and lately the news coming out of the cryptocurrency world does not seem to be comforting at all, on the contrary, the sound of the rocks of this crypto world driven by the FTX scandal does not seem to end.
In particular it was something I was expecting, let's review certain criteria a bit, what is the first rule of cryptocurrencies; if you are a former reader of Leofinance you already know it but it is good to refresh your memory from time to time: IF THEY ARE NOT YOUR KEYS THEY ARE NOT YOUR CRYPTOS. There is nothing riskier in the financial world than giving our trust to third parties, even if they have the best of reputations or great references, if you give them your keys what they do with your cryptos is no longer your responsibility.
After uncovering the rotten pot of FTX and its Ponzi scheme in cryptocurrency format, a real drama that includes the bankruptcy of the company, the alleged flight to Bahamas (or Dubai) of the "Ex-millionaire" and owner of the exchange Sam Bankman-Fried, the fall of the FTT token to almost zero after reaching record values (56$ in December 2021) and the theft via alleged hackers of more than 600 million dollars gave the final stab to this story to start another one, this time with the company Crypto. com.
Like FTX in recent days many rumors have been generated around the insolvency of crypto.com and other exchanges. An innocent transaction involving the transfer by Crypto.com of 320K ETH to an address linked to a cold wallet, a way to prove the company's availability of funds. What they did not expect is that it was later discovered that this address belonged to the company Gate.io, a situation that raised suspicions among the US financial authorities, with the consequent explanation and denial by Kris Marszalek, CEO of Krypto.com on Twitter.
image courtesy of Cointelegraph demonstrates the transfer of 320,000 ETH from Crypto.com to Gate.io.
According to Marszalek it was an accident, that those funds corresponding to 80% of the company's availability were already returned. It should be noted that Crypto.com maintains a policy of storing cryptocurrencies in cold wallets (offline) through the use of Ledger hadware, so this "error" causes a lot of suspicion among users and experts in the cryptosphere.
Is it possible that Crypto and other exchanges are mobilizing funds among themselves to sell the idea of solvency among their customers? Many users consider this explanation from Crypto.com's CEO not credible, a situation that has an impact on the valuation of its native token Cronos (CRO), which has plummeted in the last seven days. The truth is that there is a strong campaign against this exchange where even famous social media influencers are urging users to withdraw their funds from this company.
Crypto.com is moving its pieces with desperation, making public many data corresponding to its reserves, from revealing that its capital exceeds 2 billion dollars to recognizing that 20% of its portfolio is expressed in Shiva Inu, a MeMe cryptocurrency, another 20% in its CRO token and 12% in Theter and other stablecoins. Precisely this revelation is what generates panic among the users of this company by observing that 40% of the capital corresponds to highly speculative securities.
As with FTX, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, the big winner of the exchange collapse, begins to generate his telluric movements in order to reduce competitors and devour like a vulture the remains of all exchanges with difficulties. Now he sharpens his claws and beak attacking Crypto.com, urging the community to stay away from this company, considering this cryptocurrency mobilization among the aforementioned exchanges as a sign of danger.
Observing Zhao's behavior with respect to FTX, being Binance the one who initiated the stampede of funds that caused the bankruptcy of the once solvent exchange of the hapless Sam Bankman-Fried, I have no doubt that now the goal is to kill Crypto.com or at least sow doubt among users about the integrity of the funds of those who trusted it. It could be said that time will determine whether Crypto.com will have a different destiny than FTX, but it is precisely that factor, time, the worst enemy of the 18th largest exchange company in the world according to Coinmarketcap's ranking.
