Bitcoin Sets a New All-Time High

The top stories in bitcoin, crypto and more – all in one place, delivered daily

November 30, 2020 The top stories in bitcoin, crypto and more – all in one place, delivered daily Sponsored By: By Daniel Kuhn If you were forwarded this newsletter and would like to receive it, sign up here.  Top shelf Blockchain Bites is back – we hope you enjoyed the holiday pause. Now for the news: Another major hedge fund may allocate to bitcoin. Kaspersky sees cybercrime on the rise for 2021. And anonymous developers have forked a seemingly dead project to launch DeFi's latest stablecoin.   And, perhaps most notably, bitcoin has set a new all-time high. "After nearly three years of waiting, bitcoin investors can celebrate a new all-time high Monday after the leading cryptocurrency traded as high as $19,786, breaking the previous record set in December 2017 by $3," CoinDesk reporter Zack Voell writes.   Basic Cash basics A team of anonymous developers is resurrecting a version of Basecoin, a project that received $133 million in funding though never launched. The quasi-fork, called Basis Cash, is a dollar-pegged stablecoin project designed for DeFi and commercial applications, a Basis developer said. Beginning with just 50,000 BAC (the token's ticker) at first, Basis is in a minority of stablecoins that are not backed by anything of value. Instead, price stability will be maintained by the algorithmic printing of Basis Bonds and currency debasing. (The original Basecoin was foiled by U.S. securities regulators, and the team returned the raised funds in 2018.) Hedge fun... Guggenheim Funds Trust filed an amendment with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to allow its flagship $5 billion Macro Opportunities Fund gain exposure to bitcoin by investing up to 10% of the fund's net asset value in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). Guggenheim is a hedge fund giant with more than $233 billion in total assets. If it follows through on its investment, Guggenheim will join hedge fund managers Stanley Druckenmiller's and Paul Tudor Jones's recent excursion into crypto, who both noted bitcoin's strength as an inflation hedge.   Security upgrade Ethereum Classic hard forked to its Thanos upgrade, meant to increase miner participation and increase security. The upgrade allows less powerful mining rigs to join the network, while also doubling the duration of ETC's mining period, thereby "increasing network security and promoting a more distributed and healthy mining ecosystem," Terry Culver, CEO at ETCLab, said. More than 90% of existing miners have migrated over to the Thanos fork, according to Culver. Further, as new miners have come online, the network's hashrate has also seen a notable rise. Over the past year Ethereum Classic has suffered a number of 51% attacks.   Crypto crime Cybersecurity specialist Kaspersky foresees a rise in bitcoin scams in 2021, according to a new report on coming financial threats. Weakening fiat systems and rising poverty caused by the coronavirus pandemic will drive many to cybercrime. Specifically, researchers say, bitcoin fraud and theft is likely to increase, as it is "the most widespread cryptocurrency." The report extrapolates on available data from this year. Further, targeted ransomware attacks are also expected to rise, having seen "successful operations and extensive media coverage this year," though Kaspersky thinks ransomers will begin demanding more payouts in privacy-preserving cryptos like monero. Selling stock Blockchain payments firm Ripple is selling roughly one-third of its stake in MoneyGram, in its first such sale of company stock since the startup invested in the remittance giant in 2019. According to U.S. securities filing on Friday, Ripple owns as much as 17% of outstanding MoneyGram shares, and now intends to sell up to 4 million shares. Ripple acquired Moneygram stock in 2019 at $4.10 apiece. The stock has now surged 260% above $7 this year, signaling a significant profit on investment. "This is purely a judicious financial decision to realize some gains on Ripple's MGI [MoneyGram International] investment and is in no way a reflection of the current state of our partnership," a Ripple spokesperson told CoinDesk. Introducing Valid Points, a CoinDesk Newsletter CoinDesk is staking 32 ETH in Ethereum's historic upgrade, and research analyst Christine Kim and tech reporter Will Foxley are breaking down Ethereum 2.0 and its sweeping impacts on crypto markets, weekly. Using data direct from CoinDesk's own Eth 2 validator node, Valid Points features original insights about what the future of Ethereum looks like for industry stakeholders and investors.   The Valid Points newsletter launches with Eth 2.0's launch. Learn why CoinDesk staked 32 ETH in the new blockchain protocol and follow our journey and insights by subscribing to Valid Points here. SPONSORED BY LVL LVL is the world's first free bitcoin exchange with no trading fees and no hidden spreads. With LVL, you can buy, HODL and even bank on bitcoin, including: Free bitcoin, ethereum and litecoin trading up to $300,000 per day FDIC-insured checking account with direct deposit and e-payments Premium chat-based support with a dedicated private banker Debit card with zero usage or liquidation fees Multi-signature cryptocurrency wallet Legacy banks pay us debit card fees so we can bring you bitcoin services for free. Join our mission to help accelerate the world transition to bitcoin today. Quick bites Leigh Cuen dives into "Bitcoin's carnivore cult," finding it both stupid and correct. (CoinDesk)    Satoshi Nakamoto's recently uncovered emails to cryptography legend Hal Finney present a new puzzle. (CoinDesk)   Real Vision's Raoul Pal has invested about 75% of his liquid assets in bitcoin. (Decrypt)   Ethereum's mining difficulty and hashrate have both reached new all-time highs. (The Block) Market intel Boot and rally Despite the sharp pullback last week, bitcoin looks on track to post its highest-ever monthly price close. Last Wednesday bitcoin quickly shed $3,000 from local highs, but has since recovered more than 50% to approximately $18,600. That's significantly higher from the peak month-end price of around $13,880 observed on Dec. 31, 2017, CoinDesk markets reporter Omkar Godbole writes. "Every time bitcoin has closed above the previous monthly all-time high, a 700% to 1000% uptrend has followed," crypto analyst Josh Rager said. Webinar: How to Value Ethereum Transaction volumes on Ethereum represent the movement of a diverse array of crypto assets. In the fourth and final episode of How to Value Ethereum, CoinDesk Research explores unique insights about decentralized applications and their tokens based on volume data.   Register to join the final episode of How to Value Ethereum on Dec. 1. At stake CBDC pilots Yesterday I reported that the central banks of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) published a report based on a year-long joint digital currency pilot. In the report the regional powerhouses found that distributed ledgers, including classic blockchains, could improve cross-border and domestic settlements, without sacrificing privacy.   But the "Aber" project, named for the Arabic word for "crossing boundaries," was significant for more than just a successful central bank digital currency (CBDC) dry run. According to the researchers, it was likely the first blockchain-based CBDC experiment that tested the feasibility of a dual-issued currency.   In this sense, even though a Saudi/UAE bilateral currency is nowhere near ready for deployment, if ever, Aber did add to the existing body of knowledge. The program – which also involved the cooperation of six commercial banks that risked their own deposits in the trial – specifically referenced previous CBDC pilots in Singapore, Japan, South Africa and Canada.   It's worth going over what those earlier experiments were seeking:   Project Stella: A project began in 2016 and led by the Bank of Japan (BoJ) and European central bank (ECB) studied the use of DLT for financial market infrastructure. Project Ubin: In late 2016, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) commenced a collaborative project with financial institutions and technology providers to explore the use of distributed ledgers for clearing and settlement of payments and securities. Jasper-Ubin: the Bank of Canada (BoC) and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) collaborated on Jasper-Ubin Project to test the use of distributed ledger technology for cross-border high value payments. Project Khokha: In late 2017, the South African Reserve Bank collaborated with seven banks to study interbank settlement in the country. "While other central banks have also explored cross-border payments, the major difference was in Aber's dually issued single digital currency approach and use of real money," Aber's researchers write.   Accordingly, while most blockchain-based CBDC pilots found varying levels of success in distributed systems to structure a nation's financial architecture, the research isn't complete.   Aber, for one, saw early issues in coordinating nodes across jurisdictions as well as lingering questions around transaction privacy, particularly in cross-border transfers. Then there are the issues that any blockchain system will run into including scalability, transaction finality and throughput limit. Those are mostly technical concerns.   Economically speaking, as a joint currency backed equally by the Saudi Riyal and the UAE Dirham initiative, fluctuating foreign currency exchange rates became an issue. As did the possibility of different cities and jurisdictions applying different taxes or charging different interest rates.   While many nations are surging ahead with CBDC adoption – with China and the Bahamas leading the pack – there's still reason to take a slow-going approach. After all, Aber, modest as it was, was among the first to put real money at stake. Who won #CryptoTwitter? ATTENTION: Scammers have been sending fraudulent emails with links to sites disguised to look like coindesk.com. If you are in doubt about a link, type https://www.coindesk.com directly into your browser; do not copy and paste. Remember, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Blockchain Bites   A newsletter from CoinDesk   See Previous Editions Copyright © 2020 CoinDesk, All rights reserved.    250 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10003, USA You can manage your preferences here or unsubscribe from all CoinDesk email.