IOTA, Pantos and TU Wien Announce Opening of Christian Doppler Laboratory for DLT Research We are proud to announce that the IOTA Foundation is joining the new Christian Doppler Laboratory Blockchain Technologies for the Internet…

Kraken Daily Market Report for November 25 2020 Overview Total spot trading volume at $876.9 million, continuing the high levels. The last 30 days has seen a 153% increase in trading volume compared to the previous 30-days. Total futures notional at $463.3 million, also well above its 30-day average of $284.8 million. Ripple trading continues to be popular. Ripple trading was 22% of the total crypto volume, beating out Ethereum (13%). New coin to the exchange, Bitcoin-on-Ethereum (tBTC), posted 100% returns today, wrecking several of the charts. Most other coins had slight corrections off their exceptional day yesterday. November 25, 2020  $876.9M traded across all markets today Crypto, EUR, USD, JPY, CAD, GBP, CHF, AUD XBT $18748. ↓2.2% $313.5MXRP $0.6341 ↓8.9% $201.8METH $570.48 ↓5.8% $122.6MUSDT $1.0002 ↓0.05% $76.4MXLM $0.1944 ↓1.2% $51.3MADA $0.1555 ↓7.1% $19.1MLINK $14.248 ↓9.1% $15.8MBCH $314.30 ↓10% $14.4MLTC $81.850 ↓8.4% $14.3MXTZ $2.6015 ↓2.7% $12.0MDOT $5.3190 ↓7.3% $8.61MEOS $3.4380 ↓4.6% $7.45MUSDC $1.0000 ↑0.03% $6.69MOMG $4.4382 ↑1.8% $5.43MALGO $0.3428 ↓4.3% $5.28MXMR $129.35 ↓4.4% $4.61MDASH $102.40 ↓10% $3.43MBAT $0.2561 ↓2.2% $3.31MWAVES $6.6891 ↓12% $3.12MATOM $5.9191 ↓0.9% $2.88MZEC $78.329 ↓9.8% $2.86MFIL $31.075 ↑4.4% $2.77MTRX $0.0331 ↓6.0% $2.67MYFI $22347. ↓9.4% $2.54METC $6.9949 ↓3.9% $1.84MDAI $1.0027 ↓0.05% $1.75MQTUM $2.9295 ↓4.8% $1.55MUNI $3.6870 ↓9.4% $1.34MSTORJ $0.3983 ↓0.7% $1.32MOXT $0.3089 ↓8.1% $1.31MICX $0.4717 ↑0.7% $1.08MNANO $1.1892 ↓14% $1.02MCRV $0.6424 ↓6.5% $992KSNX $4.8362 ↓7.9% $866KKAVA $1.8968 ↓4.6% $865KSC $0.0036 ↓5.8% $841KCOMP $123.09 ↓3.9% $838KKEEP $0.3087 ↓16% $827KKSM $42.494 ↓12% $823KTBTC $20045. ↑100% $725KKNC $1.1581 ↑2.2% $664KXDG $0.0037 ↓13% $638KMLN $28.609 ↓12% $600KREP $16.315 ↓9.2% $553KPAXG $1815.4 ↓0.07% $487KGNO $65.969 ↓4.3% $351KANT $3.8000 ↓6.3% $309KLSK $1.4357 ↓6.3% $281KBAL $14.894 ↓7.0% $193KREPV2 $16.204 ↓6.4% $126K

Gab CEO Banned by Both Traditional & Crypto Payment Processors; Bitcoin is a ‘Free Speech Money’ Thanks to Bitcoin, Gab has achieved its first $100,000 revenue in a month, said Andrew Torba, the social networking service CEO. For the first time in its four year history, Gab saw a six-figure revenue that too without a “single credit or debit card transaction.” In his post on Tuesday, Torba shared how Gab has been banned from not only dozens of payment processors like PayPal, Square, and Stripe but also many crypto payment platforms like Coinbase and Bitpay. Besides the business, Torba said he and his family have also been “blacklisted by VISA for merchant processing.” Calling Bitcoin “free speech money,” he said the digital asset has been crucial for their future, helping not only businesses like Gab and individuals like him but all those firms and people who are being cut off from the banks traditional payment processing methods. Bitcoin solves this problem, and as such, they are spending “a lot of time at Gab working to educate our community about the importance of understanding and using bitcoin,” said Torba. The platform accepts eCheck and checks by mail besides bitcoin as payment options. “We are excited to continue building the home of free speech online funded by the biggest community of free speech warriors on the planet and with bitcoin, free speech money.”

A Call for $100,000 per Bitcoin as ATH Comes into Sight; Will BTC Hit It By the End of 2021? In another big move yesterday, the price of Bitcoin went as high as $19,400, a level last seen during BTC’s run-up to a new all-time high. But with the last resistance level present at $19,300, Bitcoin has yet to make a strong move upwards. Today, we are back to reaching for the new high, just about 4.5% away from $20,000. However, technically, the digital asset is just inches away from the ATH if we consider Kraken’s 2017 peak. During the last bull run, different cryptocurrency exchanges had different peaks. While Bitstamp had the ATH around $19,665, BitMEX had it $100 up at $19,777, and another $100 up on Huobi at $19,867. Gemini’s Bitcoin ATH was at $20,000 while Coinbase was just under $19,900. https://twitter.com/coinmetrics/status/1331297890157944835 The consensus in the market, however, is for the round figure of $20,000, and as Erik Voorhees, CEO of ShapeShift exchange, noted, “we've already surpassed the more important ATH, which is market cap. BTC value in aggregate is already at its all-time high.” How High? Amidst the ongoing bulls onslaught, people are betting that the largest cryptocurrency could go as high as $100,000 in this cycle. Up 165% YTD, according to Brian Estes, chief investment officer at hedge fund Off the Chain Capital, for Bitcoin, surging from $18k to $100k in a year is not a stretch. “I have seen bitcoin go up 10X, 20X, 30X in a year. So going up 5X is not a big deal,” Estes told Reuters. In mid-July, just four months back, bitcoin was around $9.2k, and since then, it has increased 10x in value. Bitcoin can hit anywhere between $100,000 and $288,000 by year-end 2021, predicted Estes based on the stock-to-flow model, which he said has a 94% correlation with the price of Bitcoin. https://twitter.com/100trillionUSD/status/1331661489367871494 But not for Toronto-based independent proprietary trader Kevin Muir said, “Any hedge fund model on bitcoin is rubbish. You can’t model a mania,” adding, “Is it plausible? For sure. It’s a mania. But does anyone actually have a clue? Not a chance.” What’s really interesting is the shortage of supply we are seeing. With bitcoin produced in a day already halved, Square’s Cash App, PayPal, and Grayscale are gobbling up the majority of Bitcoin’s supply. Amidst this, the whale index, addresses holding at least 1,000 BTC, is also at an all-time high at over 2,200, a number up 37% from 1,600 in 2018, suggesting institutional money is pouring in, said Phil Bonello, research director at digital asset manager Grayscale. As for retail investors that could have been sidelined due to the pandemic may be back again with force now that PayPal has entered the market. Because of this, Lennard Neo, head of research at crypto index fund provider Stack Funds, expecting a deluge of retail demand even more intense than in 2017, predicts BTC to reach $60k to $80k by the end of 2021.

IDEX Decentralized Exchange to Roll Out Multi-Chain Solution; Starting With Polkadot & Binance Smart Chain IDEX, a popular decentralized exchange (DEX), plans to expand its infrastructure into two extra blockchains, adding its Ethereum (ETH) implementation. In an announcement shared with BEG, IDEX confirmed a multi-chain solution expansion program that will integrate the decentralized exchange’s infrastructure to Polkadot and Binance Smart Chain (BSC). The latest move aims to expand the possibilities of traders on the platform to tokens, staking programs, and swaps across the blockchains. IDEX is a layer-2 blockchain solution that combines the non-custodial security of a decentralized exchange while offering a centralized exchange speed and convenience. IDEX runs all of its operations on the Ethereum blockchain and plans to give every IDEX token holder on the ETH blockchain a similar number of tokens on the newly expanded chains. As Ethereum faces huge gas costs and scalability issues with the rise of the DeFi market, new smart contract platforms such as Polkadot are coming up to offer users faster and cheaper platforms for developers to build their DeFi apps. In a statement on the expansion program, IDEX CEO Alex Wearn stated the expansion program aims to “give customers new networks to complete trades.” Ethereum is facing tough competition from other blockchains, even in light of the ETH 2.0 Beacon chain launch, expected next week. However, we are stated that the latest move by IDEX to Polkadot and Binance Smart Chain is a diversification tactic rather than a competitive stance as the DEX aims to “put a stake in the ground and plant our [IDEX] flag early.” The implementation of IDEX will happen on Polkadot Layer 0, meaning that the exchange will connect to a parallel chain (parachain) to Polkadot’s blockchain. IDEX will be integrated on Binance Smart Chain Layer 1, enabling traders to tap into BSC's centralized DEX ecosystem directly. The new tokens will be distributed to IDEX users on Ethereum starting December 7, trading on BSC and Polkadot, expected to start in Q1 2021. Tokens that are not claimed promptly will be transferred to a community fund for uses promoting the development of IDEX. Wearn further stated the decentralized exchange is working on adding new blockchains in the future but is currently working with Polkadot and BSC because both are currently compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). He further said, “As these platforms grow, we’ll see increased demand for trading these assets and a need for non-custodial trading solutions that support these networks.” To enhance the cross-chain network that will provide a one-stop-shop allowing different assets to be traded on its platform, IDEX will offer independent assets across each blockchain. Binance Smart Chain and Polkadot will start with the tickers IDXB and IDXP, respectively.

CNBC’s Mad Money Host, Jim Cramer, Says ‘Not Too Late for Bitcoin’ Even at $19,000 Jim Cramer, the founder of The Street, took to Twitter to share with its 1.4 million followers that it is a good time to jump into Bitcoin. Cramer said, “It is not too late for Bitcoin.. great alternative to gold… which I have always believed in.” The host of CNBC’s Mad Money comments came when the largest digital asset is trading above $19,000, a level last seen during the peak of the December bull run. BTC is just inches, not even 5% away from its all-time high of $20,000. While millennials are already into cryptocurrencies big time, boomers may make an entry into the market too. https://twitter.com/Travis_Kling/status/1331247502830481408 Bitcoin is up 168% YDT, with the majority of these gains, nearly 80%, coming in these last two months. Unlike BTC, which is strengthening its digital gold narrative, the precious metal itself is having a rough past few months. Ever since hitting a new high above $2,000 in August, the gold price has been on a decline. Up only 18.7% year-to-date, the bullion is down -3.74% this month, dropping to the $1,800 level today. https://twitter.com/zhusu/status/1331517404006871040 While gold is getting sold off, BTC continues to climb up, inching that much closer to its new ATH. As we reported recently, analysts at Deutsche Bank said that Bitcoin is seeing increasing demand to be used to hedge dollar risk, inflation, and other things for which previously gold has been used. Bitcoin whales are the one that is busy accumulating bitcoin currently. In the short-term, a much-anticipated pullback could make an entrance, with the number of accumulation addresses falling. However, going by the narrative that the rally is largely driven by professional asset managers, “this means that Bitcoin will play a more active part in portfolio construction, going forward,” said Denis Vinokourov of Bequant. Talking about its implications for Bitcoin, he said it would make “its once cherished non-correlated asset appeal (…) unclear, but it makes sense that if more institutions hold it, the more likely it will become correlated to traditional assets.”

Coinbase Pro Drops Margin Trading, ‘Common Sense Regulations’ Needed San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is disabling margin trading on the Pro platform, in response to the new guidance from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The exchange pointed to the “recent changes in our regulatory environment” but didn’t specify which guidance led to the move. All open limit orders for those customers using credit will be canceled by 2 pm PT today, and no new margin trades will be allowed to take place anymore while the product will be taken offline next month once all the existing margin positions have expired. Margin is borrowing funds from the exchange, which allows traders to leverage their positions to amplify their returns. Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer, in the official announcement said, “We believe clear, common-sense regulations for margin lending products are needed to protect and provide peace of mind to U.S customers. We look forward to working closely with regulators to achieve this goal.” Amidst this, Coinbase’s app has found a place among the Apple App Store’s top 100 free apps. At 73rd spot, Coinbase has jumped about 40 ranks in just one day as the price of Bitcoin rallies towards new highs, trading above $19,000. In terms of the free finance app, Coinbase has a place at the 5th spot behind the popular apps Square’s Cash App, PayPal, Venmo, and Robinhood, three out of four of which also allow trading in BTC and cryptos.

IOTA Announces New Wallet Launch; Firefly Was Built from the Ground Up for the Chrysalis Upgrade IOTA has announced a new wallet dubbed ‘Firefly’ according to a recent tweet by the IoT-focused blockchain foundation. The tweet sent out yesterday revealed that Firefly would replace IOTA’s infamous wallet, Trinity, which was hacked earlier this year. Dominik Schiener, the co-founder of IOTA, quoted this tweet announcement noting that the chrysalis upgrade will feature many upgrades as the platform prepares to go fully decentralized in the awaited 2.0 upgrade. “With Chrysalis, we are fundamentally upgrading the entire IOTA stack. Over the coming weeks, everyone will participate in this new IOTA future and try our new Firefly wallet and Testnet. This will be an exciting new chapter for IOTA and the entire ecosystem!” The Chrysalis upgrade marked the commencement towards ‘coordicide’ where IOTA’s coordinator will be removed to usher in complete decentralization. As we reported earlier, the chrysalis is the final testnet before the coordinator is removed. IOTA’s developer, Charlie Varley, who commented on the ‘Firefly’ announcement, further expounded that the prospective wallet has been a work in progress. He added that the new wallet is redesigned from scratch based on the experiences learned from Trinity, with the first alpha expected in the course of 2020, “Firefly is our new wallet. We are aiming for a first alpha this year. Taking everything we learned from Trinity, we redesigned it from the ground up. In 2021 we will add additional features like contacts and chat. Firefly will set a benchmark for user-facing apps in crypto.” In February, the Trinity wallet had been compromised, an attack that resulted in the loss of $1.6 million user funds, although this was later reimbursed by IOTA’s co-founder David Sonstebo. IOTA is now looking to improve its ecosystem's security with the 2.0 launch, which is anticipated to take place in Q1, 2021 when the coordinator is replaced by coordicide.

Binance Sends Final Warning to US Customers; 14 Days to Withdraw Funds or Account is Locked The largest cryptocurrency exchange in trading volume, Binance, is hastening its efforts to sweep off every U.S. based customer off its global trading platform, Binance.com. According to a Decrypt report, the exchange is giving every U.S. registered customer 14 days to “close their positions and withdraw their funds” or risk having their funds locked. Binance is imposing these stricter measures to comply with KYC/AML compliance regulations. It has previously been reported that the exchange warned users geo-tracked using their IP addresses to withdraw their funds from the platform in 90 days. This followed a warning by CEO of Binance, Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao, back in July 2019 when announcing a partnership with BAM Trading to launch its U.S. trading platform, Binance US. At the time, CZ confirmed that a “few restrictions would be accompanying the new partnership,” with U.S. customers having access to fewer tokens and features. https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1139391325172715522 However, the latest warning sent via email to U.S. registered users is the most serious yet from the exchange. An email shared by one of our followers said, “Dear user, as we constantly perform periodic sweeps of our existing controls, we noted that you are trying to access Binance while having identified yourself as a US person,” concerning the U.S registered customers using the platform. The users have been given two weeks – ending December 8 – to clear their trading positions and withdraw funds from Binance. “Please note that as per our terms of use, we are unable to service US persons. You have 14 days to close all active positions on your account and withdraw all your funds, failing which your account will be locked.” The latest warning comes at the back of Binance US, adding Alabama to the states available for customers – with only eleven more states remain outside of the regional exchange’s network. While the exchange does say the account will be locked, not all hope is lost for withdrawing user funds. It says users can contact customer support to try and get it temporarily unlocked.

Korea’s National Assembly Suggests Delaying Income Tax Rule on Crypto Assets to Jan 2022 South Korean lawmakers have allegedly proposed to delay the upcoming income tax rule on crypto-assets by three months from its scheduled commencement date in October 2021. According to the Dong-a Ilbo, a South Korean media which first reported this news, the law might come into effect later in January 2022. The report notes that South Korea’s National Assembly, led by its planning and finance committee, recently tabled a report to suggest this law's delay. This is because local crypto exchanges have asked for more time to develop proper tax infrastructures to meet the reporting requirements. Through the Ministry of Economic and Finance, South Korea’s government made amendments to its tax code back in July. The new framework, which is yet to be approved by the National Assembly, proposed a 20% capital gains tax on crypto trading activity for income above 2.5 million Won ($2000). As earlier reported by BEG, the suggested South Korea tax code details how transacting parties will annually report their taxes. It outlines that tax payments associated with crypto assets will be paid in May, per the ‘Taxation on Virtual Asset Transaction Income’ section on the new tax code. Notably, the proposed tax on virtual assets is applied to both residents and non-residents that leverage South Korea-based crypto exchanges for their digital asset activity. With the commencement dates pushed back, the planning and finance committee is expected to update in the coming days.

VanEck’s Launches Physically-Backed Bitcoin ETN on Deutsche Böerse Xetra Asset manager VanEck has listed a Bitcoin ETN on the regulated segment of Deutsche Börse Xetra, as per the announcement on Wednesday. This product will allow investors to participate directly in the performance of bitcoin but without buying the digital currency themselves, making it as “uncomplicated” as trading in shares or ETFs. “Bitcoin's low correlation to other asset classes makes it an excellent way to contribute to the diversification of a portfolio,” says Martijn Rozemuller, Head of Europe at VanEck. For cold storage, VanEck is working with Liechtenstein-based regulated crypto custodian Bank Frick. The most important feature of this Bitcoin ETPs is that it is physically backed by the real BTC meaning the “money invested in the ETN is actually used to buy bitcoin.” Negligible premium/discount to NAV, transparent holdings, transparent prices, and investor protections are its other features, shared Gabor Gurbacs, VanEck's director of digital asset strategy. “VanEck is committed to support Bitcoin-focused financial innovation. Bringing to market a physical, fully-backed major exchange-listed Bitcoin ETP was a top priority of our firm. We succeeded! We hope to serve many clients and partners in Europe, Asia and across the world using our innovative, investment-friendly and regulatory-conscious access vehicles,” Gurbacs said. VanEck had also filed for a Bitcoin ETF in the US in collaboration with SolidX but like all the other proposals, it was rejected by the regulators. Before the final deadline, it actually withdrew its own proposal but said it will continue to pursue an exchange-traded fund.

Bitcoin Is Winning The Supply & Demand Exercise Listen now (4 min) | To investors, I went on CNBC this morning to discuss the recent rally in Bitcoin’s price. Whether it is national media outlets or private investors, everyone is asking the same question — “Why is the price appreciating so aggressively right now?” First, we must go backward to move forward. I wrote

DeFi Projects Yearn.Finance and Pickle Working Together, Two New Tokens to be Created On Tuesday, Yearn.Finance creator Andre Cronje wrote about Pickle and Yearn developers coming together to work in Symbiosis. Cronje said, “This is done to reduce duplicate work, increase specialization, and to leverage shared expertise.” The plan is to merge Pickle Jars and Yearn’s V2 Vaults. For this, Pickle will be integrated into Yearn’s ecosystem where Pickle Jars will be deployed as Yearn vaults using the forthcoming v2 design and “Pickle and Yearn TVL merges.” The total value locked in Yearn.Finance is nearly $600 million, while Pickle only has $39 million in TVL, as per DeBank. Pickle will be introducing rewards Gauges through which tokens will be distributed, and Yearn Vault depositors get to earn additional rewards by depositing vault shares in gauges. The devs of Pickle Finance will continue to write strategies for which they will earn a 10% performance fee. Pickle Governance participants will receive DILL in exchange for locking PICKLE for set maturity dates while Yearn vault depositors will earn additional rewards locking Pickle for DILL, up to 2.5x — “the more DILL they hold the greater the rewards” with a minimum locking period of 1 week and maximum 4 years. The Gauge deposit, withdrawal, performance, and protocol fees will go to DILL holders. Pickle will also earn rewards from all Yearn depositors who use their rewards gauges. In the announcement, Cronje further shared that a new token, CORNICHON will be distributed proportionally to the victims of the recent Evil Jar attack. This new token is created to track the losses of the attack against Pickle's DAI Jar. Following the Pickle and Yearn collaboration news, the price of PICKLE surged past $20. As of writing, it is trading around $17, up from a roughly 66% crash resulting from the hack on the weekend. YFI, meanwhile, is trading at $23,700. Some community members wondered why there wasn’t a government voting for this collaboration. A Yearn Finance team member explained that there wasn’t anything for the yearn community to vote on because “creating a Yearn Vault is completely permissionless.” Given that the code is open, anyone can do this. He further pointed out that it is all primarily to do with the Pickle project. “Yearn is for builders not bureaucrats,” concluded the Yearn.Finance team member. Also Read: Yearn Finance Creator Andre Cronje Reveals New DeFi Project DeriSwap

The Bitcoin Rally in Five Fascinating Charts Five key analytics that clearly illustrate the momentum in the Bitcoin market.

Best Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency Wallets Where to store Bitcoin and altcoins? How to choose the safest place to keep BTC? Find out types of wallets and their goals in this article.

Bitcoin Whales Continue to Accumulate, Retail Also Coming as FOMO Starts Creeping in Retail traders are moving back into cryptocurrencies, and the number of first-time buyers is on track to eclipse what was seen in December 2017. While Google searches for “Bitcoin” remain even lower than June 2019 levels, which was seen in February 2018 before that, searches for the term “Coinbase,” the crypto exchange has reached its highest level in at least a year, according to Google Trends. The crypto exchange has also begun to go offline as the market makes big moves. “FOMO is slowly kicking in. We are only just beginning to see some of our retail clients borrowing against their Bitcoin to buy more Bitcoin, and that will ultimately propel the rally well into the $20,000s and beyond,” said Antoni Trenchev, co-founder of Nexo in London, a crypto lender. Let the Retail Come In We have seen celebrities like Grammy-nominated rapper Logic going YOLO by buying millions worth of Bitcoin and Maisie Williams, Arya Stark of “Game of Thrones” buying some as well. First-time buyers are also flooding the market, especially ever since PayPal enabled its customers to buy, hold, and sell cryptos. Square’s Cash App reported customers purchasing $1.6 billion worth of BTC in this quarter, a jump of 83% from the previous period. https://twitter.com/santimentfeed/status/1331526144550694913 Because of this, Lennard Neo, head of research at crypto index fund provider Stack Funds, expects a deluge of retail demand even more intense than in 2017. And because of this, he sees BTC hitting $60k to $80k by the end of 2021. “Whenever I see mainstream media attention like this, that usually leads to a sell-off,” Kevin Murcko, the founder, and CEO of CoinMetro, an Estonia-based crypto exchange, told Bloomberg. “The big fish need to lay off risk, so they open the floodgates to bring in retail guys to dump on. Not sure this is the case this time around, but it seems a bit suspect.” Institutions Already Here Bitcoin meanwhile continues to move off the exchanges, which make this bull market a lot different than 2017 one. At that time, BTC held by exchanges nearly doubled as the leading digital asset flirted with $20k, which makes sense in a retail-driven rally. Stablecoins, whose market cap has grown more than 3x in 2020, might be contributing to this change this time. Another contributing factor could also be the rise of wrapped versions of Bitcoin on Ethereum. Besides PayPal and improved focus on self custody assets, Coinbase sees its institutional assets under control growing from 6 billion to 20 billion by 4Q20. “The downward trend in AuC by retail exchanges may be an indication that this rally is being driven by increased institutional adoption. Given the use of OTC on-ramps, an increase in institutional participation would result in positive price action, but limited on-chain footprint, which is what we might be witnessing in this bull market,” noted Coin Metrics in its report.

Kraken Daily Market Report for November 24 2020 Overview Total spot trading volume at $1.37 billion, which is the largest value since we have been generating this report. Trading continues to be very high (weekly average of $728.9 million) as crypto prices dare to hit all-time highs. Total futures notional at $546.6 million, over double the 30-day average of $275.2 million. The heavy trading volume had over $400 million in Ripple trades. To put this into perspective, 2 weeks ago (11/10), only $6.8 million in Ripple was traded. Large returns today from Stellar (+48%), Siacoin (+26%), and DASH (+21%). Three new coins entered the exchange today: KEEP, tBTC, and Aragon, they posted negative returns, but look out for tomorrow. November 24, 2020  $1366.6M traded across all markets today Crypto, EUR, USD, JPY, CAD, GBP, CHF, AUD XBT $19189. ↑4.4% $480.9MXRP $0.6955 ↑12% $400.6METH $605.33 ↓0.7% $198.6MUSDT $1.0007 ↑0.0% $92.9MXLM $0.1962 ↑48% $52.0MADA $0.1673 ↑7.7% $33.7MLINK $15.667 ↑2.4% $30.8MBCH $349.65 ↑7.9% $28.0MLTC $89.344 ↑0.07% $25.7MXMR $135.43 ↑4.0% $14.7MDOT $5.7365 ↓3.1% $14.1MXTZ $2.6734 ↑1.9% $13.6MEOS $3.5963 ↑6.1% $12.7MUSDC $0.9997 ↑0.0% $9.4MDASH $114.17 ↑21% $8.72MTRX $0.0351 ↑11% $6.78MZEC $87.075 ↑9.3% $6.01MYFI $24803. ↓2.3% $5.96MALGO $0.3579 ↑6.4% $4.5MWAVES $7.5572 ↓4.4% $4.08MOMG $4.3591 ↑2.9% $3.82MATOM $5.9684 ↑2.6% $3.69MBAT $0.2617 ↑2.6% $3.44MOXT $0.3360 ↑8.4% $3.05MFIL $29.770 ↑2.0% $2.3MUNI $4.0644 ↓3.3% $2.04MNANO $1.3818 ↑18% $1.75METC $7.2799 ↑11% $1.72MKSM $48.539 ↑19% $1.71MSC $0.0038 ↑26% $1.62MQTUM $3.0756 ↑10% $1.6MXDG $0.0042 ↑14% $1.53MDAI $1.0030 ↑0.03% $1.49MCRV $0.6879 ↓7.3% $1.48MCOMP $127.93 ↑1.3% $1.36MKAVA $1.9853 ↑1.2% $1.2MMLN $32.365 ↑12% $1.2MICX $0.4675 ↑7.1% $1.01MLSK $1.5323 ↑14% $875KGNO $68.935 ↑8.4% $832KKEEP $0.3696 ↓16% $755KPAXG $1817.2 ↓1.8% $710KSTORJ $0.4006 ↑9.2% $679KSNX $5.2365 ↓4.1% $674KKNC $1.1302 ↑2.0% $644KREP $17.902 ↑5.3% $579KANT $4.0535 ↓11% $291KBAL $15.999 ↓7.3% $171KREPV2 $17.305 ↑10% $135K

Crypto market surges as ‘extreme greed’ becomes the new norm Today’s edition of OKEx Insights’ Crypto Market Daily covers Bitcoin, Ethereum, altcoins and DeFi.

OKEx to compensate users with generous rewards upon resuming withdrawals Malta, Nov. 24, 2020 — OKEx (www.okex.com), a world-leading cryptocurrency spot and derivatives exchange, has announced the launch of a…

CBDC’s Offer Better Privacy Propositions Than Big Tech Digital Currencies: New York Fed The research paper titled, “Monetizing Privacy,” by Rodney Garratt Professor of Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) and Michael Lee, an economist at Federal Reserve Banks – Federal Reserve Bank of New York, states that central bank digital currency (CBDCs) will outperform the private company-based stablecoins such as Libra in protecting the privacy of user payment transaction data. According to the research, the big tech firms are susceptible to selling users' payment data to firms searching for an extra buck to boost their profits. It further states that a digital currency offered by these big tech firms such as Libra, led by Facebook and VISA’s digital currency, could lead to troubling cases of data privacy. A follow-up post on the NY Fed blog by Lee and Garratt states some of these companies could become monopolies as more users join their platform and give them their data. Transactions using digital currencies will enable big tech firms with a competitive advantage to stack up on transaction data, further killing competition across the market. The post reads, “This gap in product quality enables the [monopoly] firm to set discriminatory prices between payment types, taking into account the profit-maximizing quantity of data it would like to extract from consumers.” “As a consequence, consumers obtain only a small share of the surplus generated from their data.” The paper further states that public digital cash such as Bitcoin (BTC) could mitigate data monopoly by big tech firms. However, volatility in prices, fluctuating blockchain fees, and the rising costs of energy by BTC mining raise adoption issues. A case for central bank digital currencies The financial payment system is turning digital as the world battles with social distancing due to the global Corona Virus pandemic. With private big tech–owned digital currencies failing in offering users privacy on their transaction data, the research paper focused on government-issued CBDCs as the solution to privacy concerns. The paper further states that a CBDC could also function as a measure against big tech data monopolies. CBDCs, however, not only offer increased privacy to users but also reduces the overall cost of fees and are environmentally friendly. The post reads, “Nevertheless, the possibility that a privacy-preserving digital payment method may improve consumer welfare represents a relevant consideration for central banks to take into account.” Regulators and authorities are urged to create policies around the privacy-enabled digital cash to ensure users are protected. Moreover, Garratt and Lee further claim that the privacy digital currency's design should ensure that “the ability for consumers to purchase products without revealing their private data to vendors” is factored during development. ‘CBDCs not the answer to all privacy problems’ Despite the benefits CBDCs offer over big tech-built digital currencies, the paper notes that they also pose their own challenges in transactions. A “reliable and robust system” must be built to ensure that the privacy-preserving platform is secure at all times. Notwithstanding, looking at “the commitment to privacy, regulators and lawmakers would have to rethink how to adapt current anti-money laundering practices.” Finally, a privacy-enabled CBDC could also affect the banking industry and financial systems, the report noted.

World’s 4th Largest Bank Drops the $3B Bond Tradeable Against USD & BTC Amid Fintech Backlash China’s Construction Bank (CCB) has withdrawn the listing of its $3 billion bond on the Malaysian cryptocurrency exchange. The bonds were to be issued by Longbond Ltd, which was to be created specifically to issue digital bonds. The bond, which was to be tradable on the FUSANG exchange, a crypto trading platform, had CCB Lauban as its listing sponsor. The day the bond was to be traded, the Labuan-based exchange received a letter from CCB informing them that the world’s second-largest lender “decided not to proceed” with the issuance. The reason for the suspension wasn't given, said Henry Chong, chief executive of FUSANG. Fusang said in the statement on Monday, “The exchange has accepted this decision, and is announcing the suspension of the listing with immediate effect.” This month, Ant Group met with troubles with its record-breaking IPO, just 48 hours before it was to be listed. According to South China Morning Post, with China’s central bank rolling out its own digital yuan, “CCB’s digital bonds, which can be bought and traded using US dollars or bitcoin, appear to undermine efforts to safeguard its currency sovereignty.” SCMP is owned by the Chinese Alibaba Group, founded by Jack Ma, who is also the controlling shareholder of Ant Group. Jacky Zuo, an analyst at Hong Kong-based China Renaissance, said, “If a retail investor could use bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies to trade such digital bonds backed by a Chinese bank, there may not be a welcoming stance from the policymakers’ perspective.” “This could be seen as challenging the digital yuan.”

AVA Labs Announces Final Testing of Ethereum Bridge; Bringing ETH to Avalanche Blockchain AVA Labs, the creator of Avalanche blockchain, is on a mission to topple the Ethereum dominance in the decentralized applications and finance (DeFi) market as the top blockchain for developers to build on. The latest release of the ‘Avalanche-Ethereum bridge’ will allow the seamless transfer of ETH tokens to the Avalanche chain and back to Ethereum. https://twitter.com/el33th4xor/status/1330878899115462664 Avalanche is an open-source platform for launching decentralized finance applications and enterprise blockchain deployments. The blockchain boasts of having a faster, more scalable, and interoperable system than Ethereum. The latest development could set forth an exodus from the largest smart contract platform, which has had its troubles with the rising DeFi market. Developed by ChainSafe, the Avalanche-Ethereum bridge is in “its final phase of testing before deploying it on the mainnet,” a statement from AVA Labs reads. Once complete, the bridge will allow simple, secure transfer of crypto assets (ERC-20 and ERC-721 transfers) across the two blockchains. The cross-transfer of ETH tokens to the Avalanche platform is an addition to the already well ETH-connected blockchain. Avalanche already supports the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), meaning developers do not need to start coding from scratch when building their ETH-compatible DeFi applications. To use the ETH token within decentralized applications on Avalanche, you port ETH tokens (or commonly referred to as wrapped ETH) into the ChainBridge smart contract, and an equivalent amount of AVA-based token will be minted. These tokens are valued at the same price as the ported asset and can be redeemed at any time. The Avalanche-Ethereum bridge is set to launch on the mainnet after the final testing phase implementations by AVA Labs partners, including Protofire, Hashquark, POA Network, and Avascan. In September, BEG reported the AVA mainnet network launch to compete with Ethereum in providing the best development platform for DeFi apps. Emin Gün Sirer, the founder of AVA Labs and a computer science professor at Cornell, stated at the time, “Avalanche is the first major breakthrough in our space since Satoshi’s leap forward, and we intend to follow in their footsteps to have the same, defining impact as we stand on the cusp of a new decade.”

Crypto.com Becomes One of the First to Acquire Provisional Licenses from Maltese Authorities Foremost cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com has achieved another regulatory milestone. The company has bagged a preliminary approval from the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) that governs how fintech companies operate on the island. New Territories to Conquer The two approvals are the Financial Institution License and a Class 3 Virtual Financial Assets (VFA) License, according to an official blog post from Crypto.com. The Financial Institution License empowers Crypto.com to issue electronic money and act as a payment service, while the VFA means it could offer crypto custody services for customers in Malta. The exchange can also execute orders on behalf of Maltese traders and deal on its own account. It's worth noting that Crypto.com is yet to receive these licenses. An in-principle license means that the exchange will need to meet some conditions before getting full regulatory approval. Kris Marszalek, the crypto firm's co-founder, and CEO explained that the approval was in line with their objective to comply with regulators in the regions they operate. He added, “Being one of the first cryptocurrency platforms to receive in-principle approval for a Class 3 VFA License and a Financial Institution License is an important milestone and we look forward to securing licenses in more markets throughout 2021.” Hope for “Blockchain Island” Again Widely referred to as “Blockchain island,” Malta has been taking significant steps to ensure effective oversight of its crypto industry. In 2018, the MFSA adopted the Digital Innovation Framework with a view on developing a robust regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies and blockchain innovation. The framework included three acts – the Innovative Technological Arrangement and Services Act, the Digital Innovation Authority Act, and the Virtual Financial Asset (VFA) Act. Many in the crypto industry saw the VFA to be the most important of all. It required businesses to seek approval with the MFSA before trading digital assets, launching Initial Coin Offerings (IOCs), or providing custody or brokerage services in Malta. The Act also introduced VFA Agents – so-called “gatekeepers” that provide support and advisory services to crypto firms. The MFSA approved 14 VFA agents in May 2019, although not much was heard from the country since then – especially concerning approval for companies under the VFA framework. Soon enough, businesses got antsy about Malta and its crypto environment. In addition to the slow approval processes, reports surfaced that local banks were declining service to blockchain and crypto firms, explaining that opening accounts for the companies was “beyond their risk appetite.” Silvio Schembri, Malta's Minister of Economy, told the Times of Malta that banks were reluctant to serve crypto companies because they were waiting for the MFSA to approve licenses. The MFSA also drew some controversy when it joined several other European regulators in adopting the European Union's Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD5). It is unclear how Crypto.com's development will impact industry insiders' view of Malta going forward. However, considering that most have griped about the MFSA's license regime, this could be an encouraging move.

Ethereum Classic Network Announces Latest Hardfork; ‘Thanos’ Upgrade Scheduled for Nov 29 The Ethereum Classic network is set to undergo a network upgrade on November 29, according to an announcement by ETC Core developer and Ethereum Classic Labs, the teams behind ETC’s blockchain ecosystem. Dubbed ‘Thanos,’ this hardfork is an Ethereum Classic Improvement Proposal (ECIP 1099) and is part of developing a stable ecosystem that can withstand 51% attacks. Notably, ETC’s blockchain experienced three 51% attacks over the summer, calling for the need to upgrade its technical fundamentals. Per the estimated timeframe, the Ethereum Classic community's consensus decision to initiate the Thanos hardfork will happen in a week. Once this milestone is achieved, Ethereum classic stakeholders are optimistic that the network will continue to ‘drive innovations that will support existing miners and attract new ones while maintaining compatibility with Ethereum (ETH).’ Prior Solutions to the ETC 51% Attacks While the Thanos hardfork is anticipated to mark a big milestone, Ethereum Classic had already launched some initiatives to counter the 51% attacks. One of these solutions is dubbed Modified Exponential Subjective Scoring (MESS) and goes by the ticker ‘ECIP 1100’. Ideally, this innovation makes it harder for 51% attacks by increasing the costs associated with chain re-organizations. Ethereum Classic Labs Founder and Chairman, James Wo, commented that, “After the successful implementation of MESS, the finality algorithm that provides 51% protection, we continue to see Ethereum Classic innovate and grow in a way that distinguishes itself and increases functionality for its users.” Mainnet Activation ETC’s Mordor Testnet, which went last month, has already implemented the Thanos upgrade, ahead of the Mainnet activation scheduled for block 11,700,000. This will happen around November 29, although the timeframe might change as the network narrows closer to the activation block (currently at block 11,672,555). Wo was keen to note that Thanos hardfork is the next natural thing after MESS, “The Thanos hard fork is the natural next step for the network, reducing the DAG size to help cultivate a more distributed and healthy mining ecosystem, increasing hash rate, and allowing for miners to continue mining ETC and for new miners to join the ecosystem.” Ethereum Classic has since advised its consumers to upgrade their software nodes to fork compatible versions ‘if they have not done so already to Core-geth v1.11.16 or later.’

Bitcoin and MMT Critic Janet Yellen Picked as Treasury Secretary by President-Elect Joe Biden President-elect Joe Biden has chosen former Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen to become the next Treasury Secretary. Yellen, an economist, if confirmed by the Senate, will become the first woman to hold the position. This holds meaning for the crypto market as Jake Chervinksy, a General Counsel at Compound Finance, said, “This is the single most important decision for the next four years of US crypto policy. The next Treasury Secretary will have enormous influence on whether the right to financial privacy is upheld or sacrificed to mass surveillance & forced custodianship.” For Wall Street, it could be good news as just last month she said the US needs to “continue extraordinary fiscal support.” Yellen had been at the forefront of policy-making for three decades, which means nobody knows the Fed better than her. Not only will she be a great Treasury Secretary, but she will also help the government achieve its objective of increased coordination between monetary and fiscal policy, said crypto trader and economist Alex Kruger. But not only Yellen is not a fan of MMT, having said that its proponents are “confused,” but she is not really a bitcoin proponent either. Back in December 2017, at the height of the bull run, she called Bitcoin a “highly speculative asset.” “Bitcoin, at this time, plays a very small role in the payment system. It is not a stable source of value, and it does not constitute legal tender,” she said at the time, adding that while the Fed is researching it, “I think to my mind, limited benefits from introducing it, a limited need for it and some substantial concerns.” During Yellen’s testimony before the House Financial Services Committee in July 2017, someone photobombed her with the “Buy Bitcoin” sign. In Oct. 2018, while explaining why BTC is not a useful form of currency, Yellen shared that she received “a gift of bitcoins.” Raz Suprovici, the founder of the bitcoin gifting service Biterica, had sent 0.0031642 BTC, worth about $20 at that time, which has now increased to roughly $60, to Yellen to make her understand it better.

IOTA Standardization Update November 2020 We will explain what standards are, the standards that apply in our space, and what we are doing specifically with standardization.

Bitcoin Is Heating Up; Funding Rate on Perpetual Contracts Has Finally Popped BTC longs have been paying shorts heavily and may see a repeat of the weekend, but for now, $19k has been broken. Also, even a correction may be different this time with retail mania kicking in.

Ethereum Proof of Stake (PoS) Will ‘Launch in 2020’ as ETH 2.0 Dec. 1st Launch Confirmed It’s official! ETH 2.0, the Beacon Chain, is coming next week. In a dramatic move, Ethereum community members deposited a huge chunk, more than 40% of all ETH required to reach the threshold to trigger ETH 2.0. With an increase of 279% in deposits in just one day, the ETH community did the deed a day before and confirmed the launch of Phase 0 on December 1st as scheduled. Interestingly, the price of ETH moved in the exact direction as of the staked Ether, as per Crypto Quant. The price of ETH was just under $400 when the deposit contract for Beacon Chain was released to the public. And yesterday, ETH hit $600, going as far as $621. Now that ETH 2.0 is officially coming in a week and BTC price is making some moves today, ETH price is retreating but still around $600. Along with this positive price action, Perpetual Swaps Open Interest also reached a new yearly high of $1.69b, both in USD terms and Ether terms. The crypto community is excited about this development and congratulated the Ethereum team for this achievement. “Congratulations to the ETH2 deposit contract for hitting the needful amount of ETH for Beacon Chain activation. A momentous achievement indeed!” said Su Zhu, CEO of Three Arrows Capital. https://twitter.com/HsakaTrades/status/1331061461322371072 This is a very bullish development not only for Eth but for all things DeFi as “transition to PoS, alongside various upgrades will enable greater network scaling, with that, cheaper transaction and more efficient running of the network,” noted Denis Vinokourov of Bequant. As for those who still want to deposit their ETH, they can do so at any time that is up until it officially closes today. https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1331073088193064964 Bloomberg also noted this development that will allow the second largest network to process the same number of transactions like Visa and Mastercard. Launched in 2015, the project has been working on the upgrade for years now. “Ethereum needs to scale to become a global substrate of the clearing and settlement layer,” Andrew Keys, a managing member in Darma Capital, told Bloomberg. According to him, while the current version of Ethereum proved that the real-world items like gold, music, and currencies can be successfully digitized, “now, it needs to be able to serve global volume.” Keys, who was one of the first employees of ConsenSys, is “100% certain that proof of stake will launch in 2020.”

Stellar Network Rolls Out Protocol 15 Upgrade, Adding Two New Payment Features; XLM Surges Stellar blockchain network has upgraded to protocol 15, according to a blog post announcement on Nov 23. The publication was sent out by Stellar Development Foundation Ecosystem lead, Justin Rice; it highlights two new features: ‘make it easier than ever to build user-friendly apps on Stellar.’ The new functions are Sponsored Reserves and Claimable Balances. According to the blog post, these new features are already changing Stellar’s ecosystem when it comes to hosting user-friendly DApps, “We've already seen both deployed to great effect on the testnet, and we're excited to see what you can do with them in a production environment.” Notably, Stellar skipped protocol 14 after a critical bug was discovered in this update while in the testing phase. The previous protocol ‘13’ had been voted for by the validator nodes in June; improvements in this upgrade included fee bump transactions and advanced asset authorization control. Stellar’s Protocol 15 Upgrade This milestone was first announced in October, although the project had been a work in progress for several months. The upgrade went live on Nov 23 at 1600 UTC, and users have since been advised to install software that supports the latest protocol. According to the blog, “Stellar Core will immediately throw an error if it's not up to date, but Horizon and the Stellar SDKs may function as normal for a bit until they encounter — and are baffled by — one of the new operations.” The value proposition in claimable balances can split payments into two by creating a new ledger entry. Stellar users can create a balance and claim a balance, which means that they can send an asset, regardless of the receiving account's state. On the other hand, Sponsored Reserves open up the window for funding innovations with Lumens (XLM) while maintaining control. An earlier blog post highlighted that, “It also adds new extensions to account entries and ledger entries to record pertinent information about sponsorships.” XLM Price Bullish Meanwhile, the XLM price is currently bullish, having gained 72.6% within the past 24 hours. The coin is currently trading at $0.189 while its total market cap is well over $3 billion, according to metrics site Coingecko.

Janet Yellen Is About To Create The Ultimate Bitcoin Tailwind Listen now (3 min) | This installment of The Pomp Letter is free for everyone. I send this email to our investors daily. If you would also like to receive it every morning, join the 90,000 other investors today. To investors, The news broke yesterday that Janet Yellen will be Joe Biden’s selection for Treasury Secretary in his new administration. This nomination will have a significant impact on asset prices over the coming years, so it is worth digging deeper on Yellen and her perspective on various policies.