January 6, 2020 | Issue #150

MUST READS

Holiday Catch-Up

Since our last issue on Dec. 23, Bitcoin has gained a staggering ~58%... turned 12 years old... and is now among the top 10 most valuable global assets. As expected, a few more institutional investors also joined the party (see below).

Happy 2021 – we're off to a hot start! And to all of our new readers, welcome aboard.

One River Makes One of the Largest Cryptocurrency Trades in History

Speculation had been building the past few weeks over growing institutional activity at Coinbase. Observers had noted that large amounts of BTC were being withdrawn from the exchange, suggesting a large institution was the culprit.

Now we know exactly who, what, and how it all happened. In a news release, Coinbase announced that One River Asset Management has made "one of the largest ever cryptocurrency investments." We don't currently know the exact amount, but it's safe to say it's a lot.

You can read One River's "Case for Digital Assets" here.

SkyBridge Launches Bitcoin Fund

Skybridge Capital, the hedge-fund investing firm headed by Anthony Scaramucci, confirmed its launch of a new Bitcoin fund Monday (available for accredited investors only) and said its exposure to Bitcoin has already reached $310 million.

Scaramucci is the latest notable financier to place a huge bet on BTC, following in the footsteps of Paul Tudor Jones.

See the investor deck here.

Three Arrows Reports More than $1.2 Billion Position in Grayscale's GBTC

Singapore investment firm, Three Arrows Capital, has disclosed a more than $1 billion position in Grayscale's Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). According to SEC filings, the firm's position represents $1.24 billion (36,969 bitcoin), or 6.1% of GBTC's holdings.

DEEP DIVE

Strike Global Launches

Fresh off the heels of helping the first NFL player get paid in Bitcoin, Jack Mallers strikes again. This time, by officially launching Strike Global to facilitate cross-border payments and pure market disruption.

Cross border payments are one of humanity’s most ancient and outdated technologies, with execution times ranging from 3–14 days and fees reaching upwards of 25%. In the thousands of years humans have exchanged value across borders, not a lot has changed, that is until now.

Crypto’s Biggest Storylines Going Into 2021

The end of 2020 saw crypto climb to new highs. In this issue of State of the Network, CoinMetrics looks ahead to 2021 and previews some of crypto’s biggest storylines going into the new year.

REGULATORY FRONT

Banking Green Light

In an interesting turn of events, the US Treasury has issued a letter that allows banks to run crypto nodes and transact on public blockchains. This means banks can use public blockchains to validate, store, record, and settle payment transactions as long as they're compliant with existing laws. (Maybe Hal Finney’s vision of a Bitcoin Bank is actually coming to fruition)

Moreover, banks are empowered to utilize existing stablecoins for fiat conversion or even issue their own stablecoins.

The news quickly shot prices higher. Ethereum (ETH) rose by nearly 12% after the news, thanks in part to the sheer volume of stablecoins using the network.

🇺🇦 Ukraine is Officially Building a Central Bank Digital Currency

Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation has announced that they will work with the Stellar (XLM) Development Foundation (SDF) to build a “virtual assets ecosystem”.

The SDF has its own blockchain network which will be used to help support Ukraine’s new virtual ecosystem, as well as its future digital currency.

Notably, the non-profit was founded by one of Ripple’s founders, Jed McCaleb, and was also awarded a contract by a German bank to issue their own euro stablecoin.

TWEET OF THE WEEK

Other Articles You May Enjoy

ShapeShift is going full DeFi to lose KYC rules
Bitcoin's total on-chain transaction volume is about to cross $10 trillion
Willy Woo finds that growth now is comparable to April 2017
Bitcoin retail FOMO brings a heap of ‘Kimchi Premium’ to S. Korea 🇰🇷
The Block's 2020 Year in Review
VanEck has refiled its application for a Bitcoin ETF
CoinDesk acquires TradeBlock, the world’s leading crypto index provider
eToro rumored to be prepping for 2021 IPO
The worst hacks of 2020, a surreal pandemic year
Greenpro Capital Corp. (NASDAQ:GRNQ) announced that it intends to set up a Bitcoin Fund

The CoinSnacks weekly digest is a manually curated newsletter that delivers fresh content covering cryptoassets and the evolving blockchain community for investors around the world. The digest is curated by CoinSnacks employees and sent once a week.

📌 One of the Largest Trades in History, XRP Update, and eToro going Public?

MUST READS

Holiday Catch-Up

One River Makes One of the Largest Cryptocurrency Trades in History

SkyBridge Launches Bitcoin Fund

Three Arrows Reports More than $1.2 Billion Position in Grayscale's GBTC

SPONSORED

Rare Second Chance to Get In Early On Crypto Tech

DEEP DIVE

Strike Global Launches

Crypto’s Biggest Storylines Going Into 2021

SPONSORED

The Crypto Investor Network

REGULATORY FRONT

Banking Green Light

🇺🇦 Ukraine is Officially Building a Central Bank Digital Currency

TWEET OF THE WEEK

Other Articles You May Enjoy

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