Every news cycle—no matter how crazy—comes to an end as readers grow exhausted and reporters start to chase other shiny things. And that appears to be the case with the FTX story, which dominated the front pages of the business press for three weeks but now appears to be receding as the media shifts its attention to holiday shopping, protests in China, and the World Cup. The battered crypto world, meanwhile, is still far from normal (is it ever?) but is coming to terms with a post-FTX landscape. But what will that future look like? For now, there are three broad storylines to watch.
The first is the crypto markets. While the events of November delivered another brutal new blow to asset prices already in the toilet, Bitcoin appears to have bottomed out around $16,000 while Ethereum continues to skitter around $1,100. That's a rough comedown from the giddy highs of 2021 for crypto's two bluechip currencies, but still a far cry from the post-2017 doldrums when Bitcoin traded below $4,000 and Ethereum could be had for $89. If prices can hold steady until 2023, or even eke out a few gains, the worst could—just maybe—be over, provided there are no more massive shocks to the ecosystem.
