Many crypto investors anticipated that this November will retrace a similar story to last year when the price of Bitcoin (BTC) and the combined crypto market capitalization shot up to its all-time high (ATH).

The opposite is exactly what has happened so far as the market has retraced its bullish leg to cut the gains it made since the beginning of the month as it went into free fall for the last 48 hours.

For the first time since January 2021, the combined digital currency market capitalization has plunged below the $900 billion mark and is currently pegged at $874.74 billion.

The bear market trigger

The cryptocurrency industry was irked by the implosion of the FTX Derivatives Exchange and the potential acquisition by its arch-rival, Binance Exchange.

In fact, FTX had put on a very healthy façade during the crypto winter, and is largely seen as the lender of last resort, having come to the aid of troubled businesses like BlockFiand VoyagerDigital.

The company notably earmarked billions of dollars to pump into acquisitions as revealed earlier in the summer, and all of these healthy sentiments were dashed when Coindesk published a report showing possible inflation of FTT’s valuation by Alameda Research. The report also highlighted how Sam Bankman-Fried has been lobbying against other industry players in the US.

Disassociating himself from such behavior, Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said he will sell his FTT exchange, a move that prompted massive sell-offs and withdrawals from the company. FTX specifically asked Binance to come in and buy their assets to cushion the impacts of the liquidity crisis and both companies are conducting due diligence at the moment.

Crypto winter part 2?

Speculation that the market has slipped into another crypto winter has fueled more sell-offs in the industry than anticipated. From today’s perspective, the industry cannot chart growth similar to last November, as all focus will be on avoiding a cataclysmic domino effect of FTX’s decline at this time.

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