Holiday Surprise for XTZ & ADA Hodlers - New Initiatives Promise to Grow 💰 Your Assets Passively

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

December 9, 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 Singapore is funding blockchain R&D. Germany's second-largest stock exchange's crypto app saw $1.21 billion in trading volumes this year. Grayscale is seeing a growing number of "Ethereum-first" institutional buyers.    ADA Staking Evolution The Cardano Foundation keeps marching towards becoming the preferred haven for crypto hodlers, with the launch of the Official Cardano Staking SingularityPool. The initiative attempts to provide a trustworthy environment for institutional investors, and smaller hodlers alike, while bringing an unprecedented ROI to the crypto community. Outshining Ethereum's current staking APY of 16%, the SingularityPool provides a guaranteed minimum of 25% APY on top of many other reward systems. The team at Cardano Foundation has laid out all the details here.   HyperBaked by Tezos Tezos is making its bid on becoming the most lucrative staking opportunity on the market with the launch of the HyperBaking mechanism. Calling it a Christmas gift for the community, the team of eggheads at Tezos revealed the project on their blog. "Baking" on the XTZ Blockchain has been around for a while, what's "Hyper" about this new feature? For starters, it will only be available for 3000 hodlers that can cover the minimum XTZ requirements, making it a more exclusive community, and thus producing much greater ROI on your staked XTZ. Speculation on forums suggests possibly 1:1 RoI for qualifying wallets.   Borse bulls Borse Stuttgart’s crypto trading app has seen €1 billion (US$1.21 billion) in trading volumes this year. German’s second-largest stock exchange also reported that in November there were several days where the app saw record daily trading volumes exceeding €35 million ($42.3 million) on its crypto-first Bison trading app, with bitcoin, ether, XRP, litecoin and bitcoin cash functionality far exceeding expectations. Cross-border CBDC Hong Kong’s central bank is reportedly working with the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) to test digital yuan use cases. PBOC’s Digital Currency Institute and the Honk Kong Monetary Authority are discussing the technical pilot testing of using a digital currency for making cross-border payments. “As the renminbi is already in use in Hong Kong and the status of e-CNY is the same as cash in circulation,” an HKMA executive said. “It will certainly offer an additional payment option to those in Hong Kong and the mainland who need to make cross-border consumption.” Mining revenue Bitcoin miners generated an estimated $522 million in revenue in November, up 48% from October and the highest since late 2019, according to data from Coin Metrics. The sharp revenue increase came as bitcoin rallied 40% in November. Despite significant intra-year volatility, mining revenue measured by terahash per second (TH/s) is roughly flat year to date from roughly $0.138 per TH/s on Jan 1 to $0.135 per TH/s at last check. Additionally, network fees slightly decreased from October to November – from a $13 average transaction fee at the start of November to below $3 near month’s end. SPONSORED BY HYPERLEDGER Hyperledger is an open-source project created to advance enterprise blockchain technologies. Register for a panel to celebrate the 5th anniversary this month. Quick bites TAX MAN: Thailand’s excise department will implement a blockchain system to make tax receipt collection more efficient, rather than raising taxes. (CoinDesk) DIGI DEMOCRACY: The city of Kaga in Japan’s Ishikawa Prefecture will trial a blockchain voting system. (CoinDesk) THE WOZ: Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak announced a blockchain startup to help fund energy efficiency projects. (CoinDesk) SPARKS FLY: Coinbase will support the Spark token airdrop to XRP holders. (CoinDesk) CRASH LANDING? Following a six-hour outage, Solana draws criticism and support. (Cointelegraph) BITS V. SATS: Blockstream’s Adam Back reignited a conversation to drop the term “sats” as a unit of bitcoin money. (Decrypt) Looking Back, Moving Forward: Crypto’s Most Influential in 2020 Each year since 2014, CoinDesk has identified the crypto community's “most influential” members. The community needed influencers to spread awareness, build confidence and set precedents for the digital currency industry to reach its full potential.   These evangelists broke through all the white noise and ushered in a new wave of enthusiasts into the space. To recognize their contributions, CoinDesk launched its “Most Influential” franchise to highlight individuals who moved the needle.   Over two days, Dec. 7-8, a special CoinDesk Live series looks back to the first list and takes stock of the industry’s progress, and zooms forward to reveal CoinDesks' seventh Most Influential list to recognize the latest pioneers who helped take the industry forward.   Watch CoinDesk Live: Most Influential 2020 on CoinDesk.com, YouTube and Twitter, Dec. 7-8. Sponsored Content   Allnodes: Staking ETH2.0: Institutional Grade Staking for a Fraction of the Cost The transition to ETH 2.0 is the largest update in the history of Ethereum and promises to be one of the most significant events in the crypto industry as a whole. Market intel Shorts on Bitcoin traders on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange are taking on short positions, as the leading cryptocurrency floats around $19,000. Net short open interest for CME leveraged funds, or the total amount of outstanding contracts, hit record highs of $1.3 billion at the end of last month. The market’s total open interest in bearish positions decreased slightly in early November, though is still up from September levels. Short positions are a bet that bitcoin’s price will drop. Monthly review The latest CoinDesk Monthly Review compares bitcoin’s November 2020 rally with the asset’s market and network performance three years ago and looks at some metrics on the progress toward the launch of Ethereum 2.0. Download the free CoinDesk Research November 2020 Review. At stake Push & pull In just under a year in office as Acting Comptroller of the Currency, Brian Brooks has pushed forward several pieces of guidance favorable to the cryptocurrency industry. In letters and statements, Brooks, former counsel for Coinbase, gave permission for nationally chartered banks to custody crypto, hold dollar reserves for stablecoin issuers and generally created a positive sentiment around the industry. But none of this guidance is binding. On Friday, U.S. Representative, and chair of the House Financial Services Committee, Maxine Waters published her own letter, calling for President-elect Joe Biden to undo, or monitor, much of Brook’s work.   “As you begin to carry out the mandate given to you by the American people to restore trust in the federal government, I would like to highlight several areas where you and your team should immediately reverse the actions of your predecessors,” she wrote. This would include rescinding crypto and stablecoin services from the banking mandate.   This push and pull seen in government – between the executive and legislative branches, between Democrats and Republicans, and between public guidance and actual law – brings into relief the need for crypto-first industry standards. Whether favorable or skeptical, if a decision comes on from down high, it will often lead to complications.   There are several self-regulatory focused groups in crypto, like the Gemini-led Virtual Commodities Association (VCA), as well as industry think tanks like Coin Center, that are doing meaningful work. The latest, a project between Bequant and Global Digital Finance, is looking to create “best practices” around decentralized finance (DeFi). The companies announced last month they would form an industry group with law firm Hogan Lovells, aiming to bring industry participants together “with the goal of bringing credibility and integrity to DeFi projects around the globe,” according to a press release. Uniform standards can help the industry grow, without running into burdensome regulations. The need for industry incubated standards is all the more relevant in light of Brooks’ proposals. Recently, the OCC chief proposed that banks be prevented from blacklisting certain politically charged, publicly vilified or legal but “at risk” businesses from banking services.   In a recent CoinDesk op-ed, J.P. Koning came out against the letter, saying that while it’s a noble attempt to stop “politically driven discrimination,” it would likely lead to a loss of diversity in services. “The underlying motivations are good ones,” Koning writes. Though it may not be for the best. Who won #CryptoTwitter? 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