​Bybit token rate plunges by 20% due to the speculation of a dump by Alameda

What’s new? On November 8, the rate of Bybit’s exchange token, BybitDAO (BIT), was momentarily down by 20%. Members of the Bybit community speculated that Sam Bankman-Fried’s company Alameda Research was involved in the dump of the asset. However, Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison denied selling BIT, and her statement was confirmed by tracking service Nansen, after which the asset’s rate began to recover. Bybit CEO Ben Zhou thanked Elisson for her quick response, stressing that users should not jump to conclusions until such claims are proven. As of November 8, 08:00 UTC, BIT is trading at $0,3911, according to CoinMarketCap.

Thanks for the swift response Caroline, this gave a lot of confidence to the Bitdao community. For others that are jumping into the conclusion, nothing is confirmed until proven, I am sure Alameda will be able to navigate the current straits. https://t.co/I4KZk9kdxa — Ben Zhou (@benbybit) November 8, 2022

More details on the situation. Nansen reported that FTX users sent $540 million to the exchange in 24 hours and withdrew $1,2 billion. The net outflow of $653 million applies only to Ethereum and ERC-20 tokens.

24H total deposits to FTX: $540MTotal withdrawals: $1.2BNetflow: -$653MNote: $ETH and ERC-20 tokens only pic.twitter.com/YbNjpFREy6 — Nansen 🧭 (@nansen_ai) November 8, 2022

Previously, Bybit and Alameda established a mutual commitment not to sell tokens of the FTX (FTT) exchange, also owned by Bankman-Fried, and BIT tokens for three years, until November 2, 2024. Due to the speculation of a possible breach of contract, the Bybit community has put forward a proposal to exchange 100 million FTT for 100 million BIT.

Nansen CEO Alex Svanevik noted that one FTX wallet has held more than 100 million BIT since the agreement was made, but that the balance dropped slightly on November 7. That said, the transaction to withdraw some of the tokens was carried out by Bybit’s venture capital arm, Mirana Ventures. Svanevik stressed that the withdrawal of BIT from the FTX exchange does not in itself imply a sale, adding that many have drawn hasty conclusions from this situation.

A bit odd that the transaction that took them below 100M BIT actually was made by Mirana Ventures - Bybit's own VC arm. pic.twitter.com/KanHJDfwnP — Alex Svanevik 🐧 (@ASvanevik) November 8, 2022

On November 6, crypto exchange Binance began a complete liquidation of its positions in FTT. It will last several months to minimize the impact on the market. The decision is likely related to Alameda’s disclosed reports, which show that FTT tokens represent the largest share of the company’s accounts. On November 8, FTT collapsed by 29%, so Alameda will not be able to buy it back, as Ellison had previously stated.

On November 7, Alameda began selling off tokens from its reserves, specifically SUSHI, LDO, CHZ, LOOM, SHIB, LINK, and DYDX. In doing so, the company was transferring assets from FTX to Binance. Alameda’s 56 addresses hold 18 different cryptocurrencies, each with more than $1 million in holdings.