The post LIBRA Fallout Hits Crypto Markets, SOL as FTX Repayments Set to Start appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

By Francisco Rodrigues (All times ET unless indicated otherwise) While bitcoin (BTC) is little changed over the past 24 hours, down just 0.7%, the broader market is in a bearish mood following the Libra token debacle, which has led to accusations of fraud and calls for the impeachment of Argentina’s President Javier Milei. The CoinDesk 20 Index is down around 2.3% over the past day, and the near- to medium-term market movement probably hinges on how the U.S.-Russia negotiations in Riyadh go. The talks are focusing not only on ending the conflict in Ukraine, but also on “normalization” of ties between the countries. An additional layer of uncertainty comes from FTX Digital Markets, the Bahamas-based subsidiary of FTX, which starts repaying creditors today. In total, FTX’s repayment program will be around $16 billion. The liquidity injection will come in the form of stablecoins. First up are creditors with claims under $50,000, who will receive roughly 119% of their adjudicated claim value, with 9% annual interest accrued since November 2022. The effect the repayments will have is unclear. While some analysts say the amount being repaid now is “too small to move the needle,” others suggest that FTX’s historic interest in the Solana ecosystem means some of these funds will flow toward it. Investors have recently turned their attention to ether. U.S.-listed spot ETFs offering exposure to the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization are seeing a cumulative net inflow of $393 million this month. That compares with a net outflow of $376 million for spot bitcoin ETFs. These inflows come ahead of Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade entering its testing phase on the Holesky testnet. Pectra should bring a number of improvements to scalability and security and will let users pay for gas fees with tokens other than ether. Elsewhere, individual investors are…

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Filed under: News - @ February 18, 2025 12:22 pm