Leading stablecoin provider Tether froze $46 million of USDT held by the embattled cryptocurrency exchange FTX at the request of law enforcement “while an investigation occurs.”

Cryptocurrency lender BlockFi has suspended withdrawals and won’t be “able to operate business as usual” given the bank run on FTX and the lack of clarity as to what is happening with the cryptocurrency exchange.

The Solana Foundation, which supports the development of the Solana network, postponed a plan to unstake some 28.5 million tokens, helping the price of SOL recover as expectations of a wider sell-off eased.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Tether Freezes FTX’s USDT
• Crypto Lender BlockFi Halts Withdrawals
• Solana Foundation Delays Plan to Unstake SOL Tokens
• Crypto Market Movers – DOGE, MATIC, OP

Tether Freezes FTX’s USDT

Leading stablecoin provider Tether froze $46 million of USDT held by the embattled cryptocurrency exchange FTX at the request of law enforcement “while an investigation occurs.”

The Bahamas securities regulator has meanwhile frozen the assets of Sam Bankman-Fried’s exchange and moved to appoint a liquidator for one of its entities as the exchange looks to secure funds from various investors.

FTX has been dealing with a liquidity crisis after a leaked balance sheet from Alameda Research revealed it relied heavily on its FTT token and tokens from the Solana ecosystem with low liquidity. What ensued was a bank run on the exchange.

Leading exchange Binance has walked away from a potential acquisition of FTX, but Bankman-Fried is reportedly in talks with a number of investors to secure funds. These include TRON founder Justin Sun, rival crypto exchange OKX, and various investment funds.

The exchange is said to be looking to raise $9.4 billion. Dan Loeb’s Third Point is among 30 to 40 investors that have access to FTX’s data room, reports suggest. FTX has announced an agreement with Tron for a special facility to let TRX, BTT, JST, SUN, and HT holders swap assets to external wallets.

Crypto Lender BlockFi Halts Withdrawals

Cryptocurrency lender BlockFi has suspended withdrawals and won’t be “able to operate business as usual” given the bank run on FTX and the lack of clarity as to what is happening with the cryptocurrency exchange.

In a statement, BlockFi said they are “shocked and dismayed by the news regarding FTX and Alameda” and its top priority “will continue to be to protect our clients and their interests.”

In July, BlockFi signed a $680 million deal with FTX.US that included a $400 million credit line and an option for FTX to acquire the company for $280 million. The deal was made after the collapse of the Terra ecosystem and of Three Arrows Capital as the lender struggled.

Solana Foundation Delays Plan to Unstake SOL Tokens

A record 31 million Solana (SOL) tokens were unstaked earlier this week from the blockchain’s security mechanism, a day after crypto analysts warned investors might be seeking to redeem their holdings as the price of the cryptocurrency tanked.

The Solana Foundation, which supports the development of the Solana network, postponed a plan to unstake some 28.5 million tokens, helping the price of SOL recover as expectations of a wider sell-off eased.

According to the Solana Foundation, a total of 63 million SOL was previously set to be unstaked at the conclusion of the network’s epoch 370 staking lockup period, but around 28.5 million tokens were re-staked due to a policy change of cloud service provider Hetzner.

The tokens are owned by the Solana Foundation’s treasury and had been staking as part of a delegation program.

Crypto Market Movers – DOGE, MATIC, OP

Several tokens are leading the charge in the last 7-day period. Some of these are well-known cryptocurrencies with more liquid trading pairs, so we’ll be focusing on these over low-cap cryptos that may have higher percentage changes.

Dogecoin (DOGE) – Dogecoin is a meme-inspired cryptocurrency launched in 2013 and supported by various community members, including Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk. DOGE surged after Musk completed its Twitter takeover on speculation he will use DOGE in some of its features.

Polygon (MATIC) - Polygon is a Layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum that provides users with faster transactions and lower costs as a parallel blockchain running alongside the main Ethereum network.

Optimism (OP) - Optimism (OP) is a layer-two smart contract network that aims to enable low-cost, near-instantaneous Ethereum transactions. Optimism speeds up Ethereum transactions and cuts their costs by settling them on another blockchain.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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