Bitcoin bounces off 2-year low with 5% rally even as traders remain cautious after FTX collapse

Bitcoin jumped higher on Wednesday bouncing off the previous day’s two-year low, even as traders remain cautious over the possible contagion from the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

The world’s largest digital currency rose more than 5% to trade at $16,497.19 at around 3:34 a.m. ET.

“We’re bouncing off a support level, which is quite expected, since we’ve been quite oversold over the past week or two,” Vijay Ayyar, vice president of corporate development and international at crypto exchange Luno, told CNBC.

“However, this move doesn’t indicate any bullishness yet … We could be seeing a bearish bounce here, looking at resistance around $17K, before further downside targeting $14K,” he added.

Markets remain on edge after the fall of FTX, a once $32 billion empire which was one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges.

Investors are worried that there could be contagion from the FTX fallout and are looking for signs of other companies or entities that may have had exposure to the exchange, which was founded by Sam Bankman-Fried.

“In general, markets have been nervous post-FTX, expecting further contagion from parties related to FTX,” Ayyar said.

FTX could have more than 1 million creditors. The company owes $3.1 billion to its 50 largest unsecured creditors alone. However, FTX’s various entities across the world only had around $1.24 billion in cash balances as of Nov. 20, according to a court filing published this week.

Bankman-Fried, who resigned as FTX CEO earlier this month, has been trying to broker a deal from his home in the Bahamas to bail out the exchange, a move that appears highly unlikely.

Meanwhile Justin Sun, a high-profile crypto entrepreneur, said Tuesday that he and his associates were considering whether to buy some of the assets from FTX.

Cryptocurrency ether also bounced on Wednesday, trading up more than 7% at $1,161.89 at 3:42 a.m. ET.

Ether in particular was under pressure after hackers stole around $477 million in cryptocurrency from FTX.

The hackers then converted a huge amount — around $280 million — into ether before dumping the holdings into another cryptocurrency as they began to launder the money. That selling put pressure on ether.

It has been a tough year for crypto with the industry being plagued by collapses, liquidity issues and bankruptcies. More than $1.3 trillion of value has been wiped off the entire cryptocurrency market this year.