Crypto prices slide as FDIC issues cease and desist letters to crypto companies

Markets correspondent Jared Blikre takes a look at the declining pricing for cryptocurrencies bitcoin and ethereum as the FDIC issue letters to five crypto companies.

Video transcript

SEANA SMITH: Just some breaking news here off the top. FDIC issuing cease and desist letters to five crypto companies. Jared Blikre is watching the action in the crypto stocks. And it says it all right there on the heat map, a lot of red.

JARED BLIKRE: I'll tell you why. We just got this breaking news. To be fair, now, all of these crypto assets were down considerably before the news. Let me just pull up a chart of Bitcoin. Keep in mind this is UTC time. But here is the entire week, down 12%. This is one of the worst weeks in quite a while. Now, here's when the news came out. You can see just a little small downdraft there, but want to get a statement from the FDIC.

Quote, "Based on evidence collected by the FDIC, each of these companies--" and there are five of them-- "--made false representations, including on their websites and social media accounts, stating or suggesting that certain crypto-related products are FDIC-insured and that stocks held in brokerage accounts are FDIC-insured." These companies include FTX, cryptonews.com, cryptosec.info, smartasset.com, and fdiccrypto.com.

Now, I don't believe these are publicly traded companies, but nevertheless, kind of shows you what's been happening with the DeFi movement in the US, not becoming DeFi anymore. It's more like TradFi. That would be traditional finance. And we can just see what's happened in Bitcoin here. Here's what's been happening in Ethereum this week. That's down 13%.

But I want to check out Bitcoin again on a longer term basis, just slightly here. Let's go back to the highs that we saw several years ago. This is going to be a five-year chart. In 2017, we hit 20,000. This is why 20,000 is such a huge level right here. Now, to be fair, we went down below it about 17,000, 18,000. But if we break 20,000, probably heading for 13,000. That's what's in the cards. So going to be another white knuckling weekend for crypto potentially, guys.