Five Things to Know in Crypto Today: FUD Floods the News Wires

Key Insights:

• FUD news weighed on investor sentiment, with FUD sending negative crypto sentiment to unusually high levels.
• XRP succumbed to FUD news despite investor optimism toward the outcome of the SEC v Ripple Case.
• Binance remained the target for FUD news, with the media reporting the FBI shooting of CEO CZ.

FUD News Continues to Test Investor Resilience

The crypto market has had to contend with FUD news throughout the crypto winter. However, increased regulatory scrutiny and investor sensitivity to the crypto news wires has led to a sharp increase in FUD news, resulting in crypto market movements akin to market manipulation.

On Sunday, market intelligence firm Santiment provided an update on crypto sentiment and the influence of FUD news. Santiment tweeted,

“Some bizarrely high levels of negative crypto sentiment have appeared this weekend, particularly here on Twitter. It’s hard to gauge what may be contributing to one of the highest levels of FUD Santimentfeed has ever recorded.”

Scaremongering has been ongoing since late 2021. However, the recent increase in FUD news has targeted cryptos and crypto exchanges. A lack of a crypto regulatory framework leaves investors susceptible to market manipulation. Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt create a perfect cocktail to drive the markets in the desired direction.

The recent increase in FUD news coincides with pullback and bearish sentiment gripping the broader crypto market. Regulatory activity and lawmaker scrutiny will likely remain focal points to pull the crypto market further into the red.

After a bullish start to the year, the increase in FUD news would have contributed to the crypto market pullback from a February high crypto market cap of $1,100 billion. This morning, the crypto market cap stood at $984.85 billion, down 10.5% from the February 21 high.

Binance CEO Alive and Well Despite Reports of FBI Shooting

On Friday, FUD news circulated of the FBI shooting Binance CEO CZ. The world’s leading crypto exchange has been a FUD target for quite some time. Yet despite the continued targeting of the platform and CEO, Binance remains the market leader amidst intensifying regulatory and lawmaker scrutiny.

Binance CEO shared the fake news on Twitter, saying,

“Someone photoshopped this, and it got spread widely on WeChat in China. It says I got shot by the FBI, whom our team works with closely.”

Binance coin (BNB) tumbled by 3.00% on Friday, though the decline was more attributable to Silvergate Bank news than the FBI shooting story. This morning, BNB was down 0.69% to $286.80.

LIDO DAO Takes a FUD Hit and Receives an Apology

Lido DAO (LDO) fell by 15.88% to $2.6233 last week. While market sentiment toward Silvergate Bank and intensifying regulatory scrutiny weighed, FUD news contributed to the reversal.

On Saturday, LDO slid by 9.26% on news of the SEC issuing Lido DAO with a Wells Notice. LDO failed to reverse the losses despite David Hoffman correcting the error. On Saturday, Hoffman tweeted an apology, saying,

“I regret naming Lido specifically, since this whole thing is all rumors and Lido doesn’t deserve to be focused on specifically here.”

LDO was down 2.99% to $2.5449 this morning.

XRP Succumbs to SEC v Ripple Case-Related FUD News

On Sunday, XRP fell by 1.79% to end the day at sub-$0.37 for the first time since January 10. The losses came despite a bullish crypto market session, with FUD news weighing on investor sentiment.

Amicus Curiae attorney John Deaton addressed a FUD piece alleging that presiding Judge Torres, saying,

“People are reading this entirely wrong. People read that Judge Torres dismissed the case vs two guards who falsified records related to Epstein and then make the crazy leap that Judge Torres is part of the deep state and will thus rule in favor of the SEC. Absolutely not true.”

Deaton added,

“The judge didn’t summarily dismiss this case the way people are assuming. She dismissed it according to a plea deal after prosecutors said in a filing last week that the guards completed deferred prosecution.”

XRP tracked the broader crypto market into the red this morning, falling by 0.65% to $0.36448.

Beleaguered Voyager Digital Sells ETH on Wintermute

On Sunday, Lookonchain highlighted the sale of 1,449 ETH through Wintermute in return for $2.25 million. Voyager still holds 148,774 ETH in addition to holdings in SHIB, LINK, STMX, and AVAX.