The cryptocurrency market underwent a strong recovery from last week’s correction, with Bitcoin leading the way and achieving a new all-time high above the historic $20,000 level.
Bitcoin experienced steady growth throughout the week as it recovered from last week’s dip below $18,000, posting several new all-time highs throughout Wednesday and Thursday, with a record price of $23,640 on Thursday afternoon. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is priced at $23,175
Ethereum recovered strongly as well, reaching a new yearly high of $674, its highest value since May 2018. The current price of Ether is $652
The overall cryptocurrency market cap saw upward momentum return, increasing from a low of $521bn on Friday the 11th to a high of $603bn on Wednesday, marking the first breach of $600bn since January 2018. With the bullish performance of Bitcoin and Ethereum, the overall market cap rose to a high of $671bn on Thursday, with a current level of $653bn
All of the top 20 cryptocurrencies (excluding stablecoins) experienced growth in price over the last week
The DeFi sector reached a new all-time high in Total Value Locked on Thursday at $16bn, partly driven by the increase in the value of Ether
The market bounced back from last week’s correction. Bitcoin was the key driver of this recovery as news about continued institutional interest continued unabated; breaking through resistance at $19,500 early in the week, before passing the previous all-time high of $20,000 and continuing to grow past $23,000, as Wednesday and Thursday were both marked by bullish momentum.
In a note, they cited it as “another milestone in Bitcoin adoption by institutional investors”, noting that a 1% allocation from pension funds, family offices, and insurance companies globally would equate to an additional $600bn in demand; exceeding Bitcoin’s current market value of $380bn
Coinbase filing a registration for a public offering with the SEC represents the first time that a cryptocurrency exchange has announced intentions for an IPO, confirmed on the company blog
As the largest cryptocurrency exchanges based in America, Coinbase floating on the stock exchange could increase the legitimacy of cryptocurrency to a wider range of investors
During private funding rounds in 2018, the company was valued at $8bn by investors
From Singapore to Russia to the USA, the last few months have seen an influx of institutions from the world of traditional finance beginning to offer access to digital assets
Banca Generali, a private bank in Italy, is the latest banking institution to make moves towards providing cryptocurrency custody, in collaboration with Conio, the company behind Italy's first Bitcoin wallet
Banca Generali bought a stake in Conio in order to offer its full range of services to clients, indicating an increased demand for institutional access to crypto in Italy
CME Group are the major issuers of BTC Futures products, having first introduced them in late 2017 as BTC was approaching a speculation-driven ATH
As the second-largest cryptocurrency in the market, an ETH Futures product will provide more exposure to Ethereum for institutional investors
Pending regulatory approval, ETH Futures should go live in February 2021
The announcement comes shortly after Ethereum began its upgrade process towards Ethereum 2.0, allowing it to scale better for institutional and enterprise adoption through Proof-of-Stake consensus
According to Tim McCourt, CME's global head of equity index; "Based on increasing client demand and robust growth in our Bitcoin futures and options markets, we believe the addition of Ether futures will provide our clients with a valuable tool to trade and hedge this growing cryptocurrency"
UK-based Ruffer Investment is the latest billion-dollar institution to move some of their funds into Bitcoin as part of portfolio diversification efforts
In a performance update and manager comment on the 15th December, they noted that they had moved 2.5% of the Ruffer Multi-Strategies fund into Bitcoin, to protect against an over-reliance on gold
In explaining their rationale behind the move, they stated "We see this as a small but potent insurance policy against the continuing devaluation of the world's major currencies"
In order for greater institutional adoption, there must be reliable pricing data available to institutions; CBOE plans to leverage its existing infrastructure to fulfil this role
A three-phase rollout is scheduled, beginning with the filling of historical prices, followed by real time price data, before the formation of indexes begins to take shape
This news follows on from recent reports that Dow Jones S&P also planned to launch crypto indexes, providing reliable data on prices for a wide range of digital assets
Since integrating cryptocurrency trading into their platform, PayPal has outperformed the NASDAQ and broader stock market, with PayPal stock rising 17%
This was only on the basis of US-based customers getting access to cryptocurrency services, with a global rollout of crypto on PayPal planned for early 2021, according to CEO Dan Schulman
Meanwhile, research published by the CEO of Compound Capital Advisors showed that Bitcoin returns outpaced the stock market in 8 of the last 10 years, serving as the top performing asset class in that period, with the exceptions being the crypto winter years of 2014 and 2018.
Argentina has faced economic issues spurred by debt and exacerbated by the effects of COVID-19, leading to widespread inflation and currency devaluation in 2020
Bitcoin’s guaranteed scarcity and price appreciation and cryptocurrency’s utility for cross-border remittances has driven adoption this year, acting as a hedge against inflation and governmental economic policies (Argentinian GDP is set to shrink by 12% this year)
One of the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Ripio, has grown from 400,000 users last year to over 1,000,000 now, alongside a ten-fold increase in volume