The price of ether (ETH), the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain network, soared to record levels on Sunday.

Prices hit $1,454.32 – topping the previous all-time high of $1,439.33 set only last week – before settling back to $1,447.77, up more than 17% in the last 24 hours.

While ETH (+8.04%) has trailed its larger cryptocurrency sibling, bitcoin (BTC, +6.82%) (BTC), in its journey to new lifetime highs, it has outpaced the top cryptocurrency on a year-to-date basis with an 88% increase. BTC has risen 10.98% so far this year.

https://mickaelmosse.com/ethereums-ether-cryptocurrency-sets-new-all-time-price-high-above-1450/

Banks seem prone to cryptophobia despite growing adoption.

From refusing to bank crypto trading desks to closing accounts held by platforms, the mainstream financial sector appears to be putting up roadblocks to seamless cryptocurrency commerce. Without banking support, exchanges are often forced to depend on other fiat on-ramps to service the deposit and withdrawal needs of their customers.

The apparent discrimination against crypto exchanges also goes beyond the refusal of banking services. In countries such as South Korea, banks have increased the level of scrutiny involved in renewing operating licenses for platforms. The cost of compliance for these added regulatory provisions has led to several smaller-sized exchanges exiting the country.

These crypto-phobic practices by banks often draw from arguments that cryptocurrencies are a conduit for illegal activities. However, actual investigative data from several sources show that there is hardly any truth to the claim that crypto promotes money laundering and terrorist financing.

Meanwhile, banks continue to be docked for aiding and abetting criminal organizations. From the United States to Australia, commercial banks are paying huge fines for laundering dirty money for syndicates like the mob and violent drug cartels. Yet a more transparent and trustless system is treated as a villain.

Coinbase acquired Bison Trails, a fully managed blockchain infrastructure provider.
Coinbase, the U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange, has made another strategic acquisition — this time in the critical field of blockchain infrastructure.

The company announced Tuesday that it had acquired Bison Trails, a fully managed blockchain infrastructure provider, in a deal that provides a “foundational element” within its growing ecosystem of products.

Coinbase said:

“By joining forces, we aim to bring the advanced technology that the Bison Trails team has developed — and continues to develop — to more projects and more companies around the world.”

Bison Trails will continue to operate as a standalone product, Coinbase said.

Founded in 2018, Bison Trails has carved out a strong reputation in the blockchain industry. Last November, Bison Trails launched its QT protocol allowing developers to build on Facebook’s libra forthcoming Libra blockchain. The company also pioneered new technology that addresses so-called slashing penalties associated with double signing messages, which is considered one of the biggest risks of blockchain participation.

Read more on https://mickaelmosse.com/coinbase-buying-spree-continues-with-the-acquisition-of-bison-trails/

Last week, Bank of America Securities chief investment strategist Michael Hartnett said in a note that bitcoin looks like “the mother of all bubbles.”

Harnett seems to be using the strength and speed of bitcoin’s price rise as the base for his diagnosis, as if that is the main feature of a financial bubble. It isn’t.

https://mickaelmosse.com/no-bitcoin-is-not-in-a-bubble/

Iran Reportedly Seizes 45K Bitcoin Mining Machines After Closure of Illegal Operations.

The mostly ASIC devices used to mine bitcoin are said to have been consuming 95 megawatts per hour of electricity at a reduced rate.

Authorities in Iran have seized tens of thousands of bitcoin mining machines claimed to have been using illegally subsidized electricity from state-run energy provider Tavanir.

According to a report by local media outlet Tasmin News Agency on Sunday, 45,000 mostly powerful application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) machines were confiscated. The machines had purportedly been consuming 95 megawatts per hour of electricity at a reduced rate, according to Tavanir's head Mohammad Hassan Motavalizadeh.

Earlier this month, Iranian authorities shut down 1,620 illegal cryptocurrency mining farms said to have collectively used 250 megawatts of electricity over the past 18 months, per a different news source. The country's recent blackouts across major cities have been in part blamed on cryptocurrency mining, drawing the ire of officials who have sought a temporary stay on bitcoin (BTC, +5.5%) mining until further notice.

Cryptocurrency researcher Ziya Sadr told the Washington Post on Sunday miners had "nothing to do with the blackouts" claiming they only made up a "very small" percentage of overall electricity capacity in the country.
In July of last year, Iran penned a registration directive forcing miners to disclose their identities. It also forced them to disclose the size of their mining farms and their mining equipment type with the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Trade.

Read on https://mickaelmosse.com/iran-reportedly-seizes-45k-bitcoin-mining-machines-after-closure-of-illegal-operations/

Stacks, formerly Blockstack, celebrated the launch of Stacks 2.0, a bridging toolkit that allows developers to build on Bitcoin.

Stacks has an ambitious vision to bring smart contracts and DeFi to the Bitcoin (BTC) network.

From an industry perspective, the launch of Stacks 2.0 is significant for several reasons. On one hand, it expands Bitcoin’s scripting language, allowing developers to build smart contracts and other innovative tools on top of the blockchain. By bringing more use cases to Bitcoin, Stacks 2.0 could potentially dilute the value proposition of competing chains. This could secure Bitcoin’s already dominant position as the world’s largest blockchain and cryptocurrency.

Read more on https://mickaelmosse.com/stacks-mainnet-launch-brings-smart-contracts-and-defi-to-bitcoin-mickael-mosse-mickael-mosse/

A New SEC Chair Who Actually Understands Bitcoin and Crypto?

After his most recent stint teaching about blockchain at MIT, former CFTC head Gary Gensler is reportedly the next SEC Chair.

https://mickaelmosse.com/a-new-sec-chair-who-actually-understands-bitcoin-and-crypto/

Visa called off its $5.3 billion acquisition of Plaid, the fintech firm serving as a fiat bridge for a number of crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.

The DOJ filed a civil antitrust suit on Nov. 5, 2020, to stop the merger, claiming Visa is a monopolist in online debit, charging both consumers and merchants billions of dollars in fees each year to process online payments.

"Now that Visa has abandoned its anticompetitive merger, Plaid and other future fintech innovators are free to develop potential alternatives to Visa's online debit services," Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim said in a statement. "With more competition, consumers can expect lower prices and better services."

Read more on mickaelmosse.com

Ethereum-Based Nexus Mutual Expands Its Decentralized ‘Insurance’ to Centralized Exchanges.

Until now Nexus, which uses digital tokens to revamp the traditional idea of mutual cover, was only focused on the world of decentralized exchange (DEXs), specifically catering to the explosion of decentralized finance (DeFi), which is susceptible to hacks and losses.

However, centralized exchanges also get hacked on a semi-regular basis, and traditional insurance cover within the crypto industry remains thin on the ground and prohibitively expensive. Indeed, for many large exchanges, the balance sheet is basically the insurance fund, as Kraken CEO Jesse Powell has noted.

Nexus takes a different approach, offering cover to users themselves, rather than relying on an insurance policy held by the exchange – or not, as the case may be.

“We are expanding to provide coverage for centralized exchanges, starting with the big ones like Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, Gemini, which is a product we’ve had really strong demand for,” said Nexus Mutual founder Hugh Karp in an interview.

Keep reading about how it works on:
https://mickaelmosse.com/ethereum-based-nexus-mutual-expands-its-decentralized-insurance-to-centralized-exchanges/

Bitcoin influencer Pierre Rochard has called on lawmakers to prevent more than $1.6 billion worth of seized Bitcoin from being auctioned, proposing instead that confiscated coins be put into a strategic BTC reserve.

Rochard, a Bitcoin maximalist behind the recent controversy over ETH’s total supply, wants legislators to draft and pass a bill containing amendments to the Judiciary Act of 1789 that would allow the U.S. Marshals Service to hold onto any Bitcoin it received.

https://mickaelmosse.com/urgent-plea-to-prevent-auction-of-1-6b-bitcoin-seized-from-silk-road-hacker-mickael-mosse-mickael-mosse/

The Bitcoin price passed $21,000 for the first time in history on Dec. 16, not long after the crypto asset broke the psychological $20,000 threshold.

The recent rally to $21,569 on Coinbase at approximately 11:15 PM UTC, means that institutional investor MicroStrategy has seen its holdings double in price since announcing it had adopted Bitcoin (BTC) as a reserve asset in September, when the price was under $11,000.

However, not every high-profile investor has made out like a bandit. Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy said he sold his Bitcoin holdings in August and potentially missed out on more than one hundred grand in profit. Portnoy reported purchased at least $200,000 in BTC on Aug. 13 — when the price was under $12,000. The same amount of Bitcoin would be worth more than $360,000 today, with the price having risen 80%.

Alex Mashinsky, CEO of Celsius Network, predicted the price would likely drop soon, presenting a buying opportunity.

https://mickaelmosse.com/bitcoin-price-hits-21569-as-dave-portnoy-misses-out-on-160k-mickael-mosse-mickael-mosse/

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority is advising all customers of crypto asset firms to check whether the firm is on the register, to comply with AML regulations. If not, they'd be operating illegally.

https://mickaelmosse.com/uk-fca-establishes-temporary-crypto-registration-regime-due-to-backlog-mickael-mosse/