Onchain Research Shows FTX’s Falling BTC, ETH, Stablecoin Balances ‘Suggest Cracks Had Formed as Far Back as June’ – Bitcoin News

While the analytics firm Nansen published a report that points to the Terra collapse igniting the flames of FTX’s and Alameda Research’s financial problems, onchain data from the intelligence and research firm Glassnode suggests FTX’s “cracks had formed as far back as May-June.” Glassnode’s report highlights a “growing pool of [onchain] data” that shows FTX’s crypto reserves dropped significantly following Terra’s fallout.

Glassnode Report Highlights How FTX’s Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Stablecoin Balances Dropped Significantly Following the Terra Ecosystem Implosion

There’s been a lot of eyes focused on the “FTX Accounts Drainer” address as the unknown entity has been offloading significant amounts of ether to this very day. Furthermore, FTX’s bitcoin (BTC) wallet held 20,176.84 bitcoin on Nov. 5, 2022, and the BTC that’s currently worth $326.43 million vanished without a trace.

The blockchain intelligence and research firm Glassnode’s weekly onchain newsletter explains that BTC reserves held by FTX declined significantly at the end of June. Glassnode also noted that monitoring FTX’s bitcoin reserves was a complex process.

“Tracking the exchange reserves for FTX has been somewhat of a challenge for many data providers over the years, with our own experience being that FTX utilized a relatively complex peeling chain system for their BTC reserves,” Glassnode’s onchain newsletter details. “In April to May this year, the FTX reserves within our cluster had reached a peak of over 102k BTC. This dramatically declined by 51.3% in late-June.” Glassnode’s research report adds:

Reserves have since persistently declined until reaching effectively zero during this week’s bank run. As claims of Alameda misappropriating customer deposits come to light, this indicates that the Alameda-FTX entity may have in fact experienced severe balance sheet impairment in May-June following the collapse of LUNA, 3AC, and other lenders.

Glassnode: ‘A Growing Pool of Onchain Data to Suggest Cracks Had Formed as Far Back as May-June’

FTX’s bitcoin reserve cache was not the only stash that saw significant declines since Terra’s collapse, according to Glassnode’s report. The researchers detail that in June, FTX’s ethereum (ETH) reserves slipped by 55.2% as 576,000 ether left the exchange. When FTX’s financial cracks really started to appear, after Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) revealed Binance was dumping all…