the collapse of sam bankmanfried’s ftx cryptocurrency exchange and its subsequent bailout by binance brought to the fore the vulnerability of digital currencies and related institutions what happened the development snuffed out a promising rally that was materializing in the crypto space bitcoin btcusd which rallied past the 21440 level in its recent upleg has now given back all the gains and traded at a twoyear low the ftx crisis began as a dispute between the exchange and binance with the latter’s ceo changpeng zhao selling about 529 million in ftx’s native token ftt fttusd following reports that the exchange was facing a liquidity crisis see also ftx temporarily halts withdrawals onchain data shows what you need to know market participants immediately began fearing a contagion which has weighed down on the space shares of publicly listed cryptocurrency exchange coinbase global inc coin fell sharply on tuesday and were seen extending the losses ceo brian armstrong sought to allay fears by suggesting that the exchange has no material exposure to ftx or ftt and no exposure to alameda alameda is a quantitative trading firm founded by bankmanfried and provides liquidity in the digital assets market ark invest founder cathie wood has thrown her weight behind coinbase with her activelytraded exchangetraded funds buying over 420000 shares of the cryptocurrency exchange platform on tuesday valued at over 21 million “early implications for coinbase are potentially positive as distractions and withdrawals from ftx could lead to new customer gains for coin in the near term” needham analyst john todaro said in a note nearterm crypto price declines and increased crypto investor concerns could lead to dampened crypto interest he added   coinbase shed over 5 to 4821 on top of the 1078 plunge on tuesday according to benzinga pro data   crypto miner marathon digital holdings inc fell 522 to 944 after tuesdays 514 pullback marathon digital’s weakness comes amid the company’s quarterly results that showed a wider loss and a sharp drop in revenue as the it transitioned its mining fleet   other miners such as canaan inc and riot blockchain inc fell 205 and 525 respectively to 287 and 505