Cryptocurrencies
Crypto’s Excruciating Week Has Traders Bracing for Next Crisis
- Strains at Celsius, Babel, Three Arrows fuel contagion fears
- Price declines, industry job cuts magnify downbeat vibe
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It was one of the most dramatic weeks in the short history of the cryptocurrency market, bookended by the type of announcements investors fear the most from a counterparty: We’re sorry, but we just can’t return your money right now.
In between, a nascent technocratic industry with grand ambitions to reinvent the financial system was rocked repeatedly by echoes of past crises in the old system. It was a week of margin calls, forced selling and important collateral being exposed as way too illiquid in a time of crisis. There were rumblings of hedge-fund blowups, tales of opportunistic predatory trading, job cuts and loud denials of problems from key players proven wrong almost immediately.