CoinDesk Crypto

Publicly traded mining machine manufacturer Canaan Inc. (CAN) announced the resignation of CFO Quanfu Hong and named Tong He as acting CFO.

• Hong’s resignation was due to “personal reasons,” the Beijing-based company said.
• Acting CFO He has served as the company’s director of finance since July 2020.
• A date for the Nasdaq-listed company’s earnings has not been set yet.
• Shares of Canaan have gained 8% so far in 2021, currently trading around $7.25. Bitcoin rose over 50% in the same period.

• US Lawmakers Ask Justin Sun, DLive How They Moderates Extremist Content
• First Mover – Feb 11, 2021
• Cramer Says ‘Every’ Corporate Treasurer Should Be Thinking Bitcoin
• First Mover – Feb 10, 2021

Cryptocurrency hacks worth hundreds of millions of dollars were used to help fund North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs in 2020, according to United Nations experts.

• A report sent to U.N. Security Council members on Monday said North Korea-linked criminals continued to attack financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges over last year.
• The experts estimated that, from 2019 to November 2020, around $316.4 million in crypto assets had been stolen by these actors, according to an AP report Tuesday.
• They cited a single September 2020 hack against a cryptocurrency exchange that stole $281 million worth of cryptocurrency.
• That may be a reference to the breach at the KuCoin exchange breach, reported by CoinDesk in the same month.
• The U.N. experts investigated activities conducted by North Korea’s intelligence agency, the Reconnaissance General Bureau, which is on the U.N. sanctions blacklist for targeting cryptocurrency and defense companies.
• North Korea is said to be laundering stolen cryptocurrencies through over-the-counter brokers in China in order to acquire fiat currencies such as the U.S. dollar.

See also: Ethereum Dev Virgil Griffith’s Attorney Files Motion to Dismiss Charges of Aiding North Korea

• US Lawmakers Ask Justin Sun, DLive How They Moderates Extremist Content
• First Mover – Feb 11, 2021
• Cramer Says ‘Every’ Corporate Treasurer Should Be Thinking Bitcoin
• First Mover – Feb 10, 2021

In a run reminiscent of its stunning ascent in early January, bitcoin’s price blew past $45,000, $46,000 and $47,000 in less than an hour late Monday, eventually topping $48,000. By early Tuesday, the largest cryptocurrency had settled down to about $45,200. 

The powerful rally came after Elon Musk’s electric-vehicle company, Tesla (TSLA), announced it had bought $1.5 billion of the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin (BTC) now has a market capitalization of nearly $890 billion, which would rank it ahead of all but six of the world’s largest publicly trading companies, including No. 7 Tesla at $829 billion. 

For those keeping track of Tesla’s bet, it appears to be paying off so far. Based on the 18% gain in the cryptocurrency’s price over the past 24 hours, the investment has already generated a paper gain of about $270 million.   

Related: US Lawmakers Ask Justin Sun, DLive How They Moderates Extremist Content

Ether (ETH), the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain, climbed early Tuesday to a new all-time high of $1,825, based on CoinDesk 20 data. The increase pushed the second-largest cryptocurrency’s market value past $200 billion for the first time. Traders cited expectations the CME’s new ether futures might prompt more institutional investors to bet on the cryptocurrency’s price. At the same time, data showed the balance of ether on exchanges falling to a 16-month low – taken as a sign few investors are queuing up to take profits, even at these unprecedented price levels.      

In traditional markets, investors in bond markets were focused on the “great reflation trade,” amid signs President Joe Biden is pushing forward with his $1.9 trillion stimulus proposal despite opposition from lawmakers in the minority Republican Party as well as from some fellow Democrats. Stocks were lower, while gold strengthened 0.6% to $1,842 an ounce. 

Corporate treasurers might follow Tesla into bitcoin

Tesla’s purchase of $1.5 billion of bitcoin has opened a spigot of speculation on how many corporate executives might soon follow CEO Elon Musk’s lead and steer their firms into cryptocurrencies.

Related: First Mover – Feb 11, 2021

“It will now become increasingly common for company treasuries to have an allocation to bitcoin,” says Joe DiPasquale, CEO of the cryptocurrency hedge fund BitBull Capital. He predicts the trend could help send bitcoin prices to $80,000 by year’s end. 

Musk commands an audience partly because he’s reportedly one of the world’s richest men – just as investors once hung on Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett’s every word when he was the world’s richest man; he had the hot hand. 

“If any lesser mortals had made the decision to put part of their balance sheet in bitcoin, I don’t think it would have been taken seriously,” Thomas Hayes, managing member at Great Hill Capital LLC in New York, told Reuters. 

And yet it is being taken seriously. Not only are big investors with almost-unassailable reputations like Bill Miller going into bitcoin, at least partly because of its perceived use as a hedge against central bank money printing, but retail traders are flocking to the fold. In January, some $3.5 billion poured into exchange-traded funds that track inflation-protected bonds, the strongest monthly inflow on record, Bloomberg News reported last week.  

Michael Saylor, the MicroStrategy (MSTR) CEO who has become the biggest proselytizer for corporations putting treasury money into bitcoin, congratulated Musk on Monday in a tweet. “The entire world will benefit from this leadership,” Saylor wrote. 

Mitch Steves, an analyst with the brokerage firm RBC Capital Markets, wrote Monday in a report that he thinks Apple (AAPL), the iPhone maker that is also the world’s largest company, should start its own cryptocurrency exchange. According to CoinDesk’s Nathan DiCamillo, Steves wrote that “the potential revenue opportunity would be in excess of $40 billion a year.” That’s enough to move the needle, even for Apple. 

“There’s no doubt in my mind that in the coming weeks and months, we’ll see many more Fortune 500 companies making similar announcements as they look to diversify their tremendous cash balances out of the flailing U.S. dollar,” said Mati Greenspan, founder of the foreign-exchange and cryptocurrency analysis firm Quantum Economics.

Craig Erlam, senior market analyst for the foreign-exchange brokerage Oanda, says the corporate herd may still move slowly. Indeed, few CEOs possess the well-documented moxie of Musk, who not only started his own private spaceflight company as a moonlighting gig but also once sent a single tweet that resulted in a $40 million fine from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “Some other companies may be tempted to follow but the vast majority will be far too cautious to expose themselves to the volatile world of cryptos,” Erlam wrote in an email. 

David Grider, an analyst for the independent investment-research firm FundStrat, estimated Monday in a report that some $215 billion of additional demand for cryptocurrencies could materialize if all the companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index followed Tesla’s lead.  

“We don’t think this happens overnight, but we do think there’s much more room for corporate treasury penetration and expect the trend to continue,” Grider wrote.

As always with fast-moving market trends, fear of missing out, often known by the acronym FOMO, can be a powerful force. The more big corporate moves into bitcoin, and the higher bitcoin goes as a result of those moves, the more treasurers might feel pressure to join the crowd. Grider suggests that some companies might buy bitcoin as a hedge against the possibility their companies might someday get disrupted against blockchain technology; if they lose out to the competition, the reasoning goes, at least they’ll have the bitcoin. 

Maya Zehavi, a blockchain consultant, put it this way to Reuters: “The downside of staying on the sidelines will only become costlier over time.”  

‘It’s a call-buying frenzy’

Investor interest in call options (bullish bets) has increased, a sign that some investors are positioning for a continued price rally, CoinDesk’s Omkar Godbole writes.

• “We are seeing high volume across the board in call options ranging from $56,000 to $72,000,” Matthew Dibb, co-founder and COO of Stack Funds, told CoinDesk. “If the options market is any indication of the enthusiasm across investors, we will be going a lot higher.”
• Multiple 100-plus call option contracts have been bought at strikes of $44,000, $48,000, and $52,000, according to Swiss-based data analytics platform Laevitas. 
• “It’s a call-buying frenzy,” Laevitas tweeted late Monday.
• The one-, three- and six-month put-call skews, which measure the cost of bearish puts relative to calls, are firmly entrenched in negative territory, per data provider Skew. That’s an indication call options are drawing higher demand than puts.

According to Godbole, the broader bias in the bitcoin market should remain bullish as long as the trendline rising from $10,000 is held intact. (See chart above.) 

The “Elon rally” has established $42,500 as the new support, and prices could rise to $50,000 in coming weeks, according to Dibb.

Ether: On the first day of trading in the CME’s new ether futures, some 388 contracts changed hands, equivalent to about 19,400 ETH, or $33 million, Tim McCourt, global head of equity products for the Chicago-based exchange, told The Block. “The response to ether has been overwhelming,” McCourt said. For comparison, when the CME debuted bitcoin futures in late 2017, nearly 1,000 contracts changed hands on day one, according to McCourt. 

Cardano (ADA), polkadot (DOT): Ether? Bah. A growing number of cryptocurrency traders are betting on “Ethereum killers,” or tokens associated with blockchains that could someday rival Ethereum’s domination of decentralized finance, known as DeFi, CoinDesk’s Muyao Shen writes. Cardano has vaulted into the top ranks of digital assets, with a market value of about $22 billion, while polkadot is just behind, at about $20 billion. Both have now surpassed XRP‘s $16 billion though still represent a fraction of ether’s $201 billion.  

Dogecoin (DOGE): Prices for the doggie-faced meme token, started in 2013 as little more than a joke, were higher for a fourth straight day, topping 8 cents. The token now has a market capitalization of more than $10.3 billion. That’s more than Dropbox, the cloud data-storage company; Pandora, the music-streaming service; Invesco, the mutual-fund company; and Fresnillo, the world’s largest silver-mining company, according to the website CompaniesMarketCap.com.

Opinions, observations and other perspectives

Matt Blom, head of sales and trading at EQUOS, had a lot of fun imagining Tesla’s new price list, below, which appeared in his daily newsletter on Monday.

Even so, Antony Welfare, executive director for enterprise at NEM Software couldn’t help but dwell on the future price of a Tesla Roadster, currently priced at $250,000, or a little over 5 BTC: “By the end of this bull market it will be more like 2 BTC,” he noted in a comment emailed to First Mover by a PR representative. 

• Cramer Says ‘Every’ Corporate Treasurer Should Be Thinking Bitcoin
• First Mover – Feb 10, 2021

Ethereum startup Matic Network is rebranding to Polygon as it goes all-in on further Ethereum layer 2 scaling solutions.

The India-based firm is pivoting toward addressing Ethereum’s throughput problem with a forthcoming layer 2 aggregation SDK that can host multiple technologies at once, according to a blog post shared with CoinDesk. 

The startup currently administers a proof-of-stake (PoS) Ethereum sidechain using the Plasma framework – a now out-of-favor layer 2 solution that will continue to be hosted. Version 1 of the software development kit (SDK) for layer 2 aggregation will be ready in March, Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal said in a Telegram message.

Related: US Lawmakers Ask Justin Sun, DLive How They Moderates Extremist Content

“Polygon will support multiple layer 2 solutions such as Optimistic Rollups (OR), zkRollups (ZKR), and Validium, effectively making it an L2 aggregator,” the blog reads. “This approach, implemented via Polygon’s modular SDK, will enable projects to select the scaling solution that best suits their needs rather than being bound by any one option.”

Polygon’s rebrand and new roadmap comes at a time of increased stress on the Ethereum main network, which has been suffering historic fee rates. For example, the average Ethereum transaction fee broke above $20 per transfer for the first time ever last week. Many Ethereum-based dapps are scrambling to find layer 2 solutions and have often turned to various forms of rollups like ZKR or OR.

Rollups are a throughput technology for verifying transactions off-chain that are then re-published on-chain. They have been the preferred solution to Ethereum’s scaling woes, as Vitalik Buterin expressed in this autumn blog post. 

Polygon will also be able to launch whole blockchains, similar to Parity Technologies’ Substrate. Blockchains launched on Polygon inherit the security assumptions of the underlying Ethereum blockchain, just as Substrate-based chains can plug into Polkadot’s ecosystem to gain security, Polygon core developer Mihailo Bjelic said in a phone interview.

Related: First Mover – Feb 11, 2021

“The Polygon SDK is built to accommodate [and] aggregate all such kinds of solutions, rollups being one of them. Currently, the Polygon SDK will enable creation of standalone chains like Polkadot’s substrate,” Nailwal said.

• Cramer Says ‘Every’ Corporate Treasurer Should Be Thinking Bitcoin
• First Mover – Feb 10, 2021

New York-based Signature Bank has been added to JPMorgan’s list of recommended products on Tuesday.  

• JPMorgan analyst Steven Alexopoulos added Signature Bank (SBNY)  to its “focus list,” saying the bank is “positioned to ride the crypto wave.”
• A focus list highlights recommended stocks published by the investment firm’s research department.
• Deposit five-times growth in 2020 to more than $10 billion has “caught investors by surprise and triggered many questions about the opportunity for growing this newer business.”
• Bank’s shares have had “very strong outperformance” year to date: Alexopoulos.
• “Overweight” rating maintained, with price target of $250 a share, versus $195 now.

Read more: Signature Bank Adds $2.5B in Non-Interest Bearing Deposits in Q4

• US Lawmakers Ask Justin Sun, DLive How They Moderates Extremist Content
• First Mover – Feb 11, 2021
• Cramer Says ‘Every’ Corporate Treasurer Should Be Thinking Bitcoin
• First Mover – Feb 10, 2021

Xend Finance, a Nigeria-based decentralized finance (DeFi) platform for credit unions and cooperatives, has secured new partners and funding as it prepares for its bid to bring high-interest savings opportunities to Africa.

Set to launch its mainnet in March, the firm announced Tuesday that it has partnered with software service provider TechFusion Africa and will make its services available to TechFusion’s 5,000 credit union members. Xend has also secured new investors led by NGC Ventures and Haskhey, bringing total investment in the company to date to $2 million. 

The Xend platform launch was announced in November 2020, alongside a $1.5 million strategic funding round. The platform is backed by Binance, Google Launchpad and others. 

Related: Matic Network Now ‘Polygon’ as Platform Targets Ethereum’s L2 Woes

According to Xend CEO Aronu Ugochukwu, credit unions and cooperatives can deposit their funds on the platform, where they will be converted to stablecoins – cryptocurrencies backed by traditional assets like the U.S. dollar.  

“We’ve created a platform to enable cooperatives and credit unions to earn high yields through stablecoins,” Ugochukwu told CoinDesk.  

Credit unions both at the institutional and community levels will have access to the platform and, by saving credit union funds in stablecoins, these groups can earn higher interest, he said. 

“Traditionally, credit unions offer an interest rate of 1% annual percentage yield compared to the possible 15% available through Xend Finance,” said Marilyn Modupe Jiwalde, head of sales and marketing at TechFusion Africa. 

Related: Crypto-Friendly Signature Bank Added to JPMorgan’s ‘Focus List’

The goal is to help protect the earnings of African citizens from local currency devaluations and unstable economies, Ugochukwu said, pointing to Nigeria, where people are using crypto as a hedge against inflation. A Bloomberg survey of investors and analysts concluded that Nigeria’s central bank may devalue the local currency, the naira, by as much as 10% in 2021. 

See also: Binance Labs–Backed ‘DeFi Credit Union’ Bringing Higher Yields to Savers in Nigeria

• Siam Bank Launches $50M Blockchain Fund
• Hashdex to Launch the Hashdex Nasdaq Crypto Index ETF

SCB 10X, Siam Commercial Bank’s venture capital arm, said it has launched a new $50 million fund to invest in blockchain, digital asset and decentralized finance (DeFi) startups.

• The fund will focus on global early and growth-stage companies that will shape the next generation of financial services and digital systems, the venture capital arm of Thailand’s oldest bank announced.
• The firm’s chief venture and investment officer, Mukaya Panich, said blockchain-enabled financial services have the potential to spur financial inclusion, enable open access, and encourage innovation
• SCB 10X has previously invested in Ripple and BlockFi, a cryptocurrency lending platform with $1.5 billion in crypto assets on its books. SCB 10X joined the Series C funding round in August 2020 along with Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures and Winklevoss Capital.
• More recently, the venture capital firm invested in Alpha Finance, a DeFi platform developing an ecosystem focused on products that can interoperate across different blockchains.

See also: BlockFi Raises $50M From Universities, NBA Star, Others as Crypto Lending Soars

• Matic Network Now ‘Polygon’ as Platform Targets Ethereum’s L2 Woes
• Crypto-Friendly Signature Bank Added to JPMorgan’s ‘Focus List’
• Binance-Backed DeFi Credit Union Platform Secures Partners, Funding Before Launch
• Hashdex to Launch the Hashdex Nasdaq Crypto Index ETF

Brazil-based asset manager Hashdex said it will launch the world’s first crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF) on Monday.

• Listed on the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX), the Hashdex Nasdaq Crypto Index ETF  will track the Nasdaq Crypto Index (NCI) developed by Nasdaq and Hasdex and will be available for trading by accredited non-U.S. investors.
• Brazilian investors can gain exposure through a family of feeder funds managed by Hashdex and via the country’s leading investment platforms.
• Maintained by Nasdaq’s calculation agent, CF Benchmarks, the NCI tracks the performance of a diverse basket of USD-traded digital assets such as bitcoin cash, chainlink and stellar lumens. Bitcoin has the highest weighting on the NCI with 78.61%, followed by ethereum’s 16.86%.
• “The product should also accelerate the entry of institutional investors in crypto, a trend that has gained incredible momentum in the past months,” Marcelo Sampaio, CEO of Hashdex said.
• “The Nasdaq Crypto Index represents another leap toward the institutionalization of crypto as investors look for broader exposure to the digital asset class,” Sui Chung, CEO of CF Benchmarks, told CoinDesk.

UPDATE (Feb. 9 14:06 UTC): Fixes weighting percentage of ethereum.

• Matic Network Now ‘Polygon’ as Platform Targets Ethereum’s L2 Woes
• Crypto-Friendly Signature Bank Added to JPMorgan’s ‘Focus List’
• Binance-Backed DeFi Credit Union Platform Secures Partners, Funding Before Launch
• Siam Bank Launches $50M Blockchain Fund

Crypto market maker Apifiny is planning to go public by the end of 2021, the company announced Tuesday. 

Following in Coinbase and INX’s footsteps, San Francisco-based Apifiny plans use the funds raised through the listing to finance an aggressive expansion this year,  

“We think there’s more vertical ways to improve these products,” said Haohan Xu, CEO of Apifiny. “Like having better algorithms, faster connections, having more robust servers that can process more transactions per second.”

Related: Matic Network Now ‘Polygon’ as Platform Targets Ethereum’s L2 Woes

The firm’s main two product lines include Apifiny Connect, which lets institutional traders access cryptocurrency exchanges around the globe, and ExOne Plus, a market-making platform for smaller exchanges that need liquidity. Apifiny says it uses its connections to exchanges around the globe to enable better price discovery, which it uses to hedge trader’s positions.

In the past few months, the firm has added Crypto.com, Huobi Global, OKEx, Kucoin, BitMax, HBTC and Blockchain.com to its list of exchange partners.

See also: Coinbase to Become Publicly Traded, Announces Proposed Direct Listing of Shares

• Crypto-Friendly Signature Bank Added to JPMorgan’s ‘Focus List’
• Binance-Backed DeFi Credit Union Platform Secures Partners, Funding Before Launch
• Siam Bank Launches $50M Blockchain Fund

Singapore-based digital asset investment firm Spartan Group announced a new $50 million venture fund Tuesday that it said will invest in emerging decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystems.

• The fund has raised over $30 million in its first round, with a further $20 million expected in a subsequent round likely taking place in March or April.
• Spartan aims to fill the gap between the Western and Asian markets, focusing on go-to-market strategies to boost early stage investments in DeFi projects.
• The group manages over $200 million across its various funds at present and has previously invested in DeFi protocols including MakerDao, Kyber Network, Yearn and Synthetix, via its Global Blockchain Opportunities Fund.
• Recently, Spartan joined a $10 million Series B funding round in trading venue dYdX led by Three Arrows Capital and DeFinance Capital.
• Kelvin Koh, co-founder of Spartan Group and former partner at Goldman Sachs, said the aim is to “create significant disruptions to the existing financial system over the next 20 years” through DeFi and fintech.

See also: Big Guns Back $10M Investment in DeFi’s dYdX

• Matic Network Now ‘Polygon’ as Platform Targets Ethereum’s L2 Woes
• Crypto-Friendly Signature Bank Added to JPMorgan’s ‘Focus List’
• Binance-Backed DeFi Credit Union Platform Secures Partners, Funding Before Launch
• Siam Bank Launches $50M Blockchain Fund

Ethereum’s ether cryptocurrency rallied to new lifetime highs early on Tuesday amid a continued drying up of sell-side liquidity in the market.

The second-largest cryptocurrency registered a record high of $1,824.59 during the European trading hours, surpassing the previous peak price of $1,761.35 hit on Feb. 5, according to CoinDesk 20 data.

The cryptocurrency is now trading lower at $1,764, representing a 5.5% gain on a 24-hour basis. Ether has more than doubled in value this year, outperforming bitcoin‘s 58% rise.

Related: Matic Network Now ‘Polygon’ as Platform Targets Ethereum’s L2 Woes

The latest gains could be attributed to expectations that Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s (CME) regulated ether futures would boost institutional participation. The CME futures contracts went live on Monday.

The bullish sentiment may have received a boost from the recent GameStop saga and turmoil in legacy markets underscoring what some say is a need for more democratization of finance. Ethereum’s blockchain dominates the decentralized finance space.

Aside from the above factors, the cryptocurrency may have benefitted from low liquidity on exchanges. The number of coins held in exchange addresses fell to a 16-month low of 15,243,945 on Monday, according to data source Glassnode.

The exchange balance has been sliding since August, likely due to investors taking direct custody of their coins or moving them to DeFi protocols. The number has declined by 8% over the past 4.5 weeks alone.

Related: Crypto-Friendly Signature Bank Added to JPMorgan’s ‘Focus List’

With prices at current levels, ether’s market capitalization is now over $200 billion.

Also read: Ethereum Futures Are Now Trading on CME

• Binance-Backed DeFi Credit Union Platform Secures Partners, Funding Before Launch
• Siam Bank Launches $50M Blockchain Fund

Bitcoin’s bull run may be set to intensify as the market anticipates a pick up in corporate demand prodded on by Tesla’s major investment in the cryptocurrency.

“Prices can fly very high, I expect other heavyweights to follow suit,” trader and analyst Alex Kruger told CoinDesk over WhatsApp, referring to Tesla’s bitcoin purchases made earlier this year.

On Monday, the electric car maker disclosed its $1.5 billion investment in bitcoin and signaled openness to acquire more digital assets, kicking the bitcoin market into overdrive. Bitcoin saw a record single-day move in dollar terms on Monday, rising by over $8,000 to levels above $46,000 and roaring to fresh lifetime highs above $48,000 early today, CoinDesk 20 data shows.

Related: Matic Network Now ‘Polygon’ as Platform Targets Ethereum’s L2 Woes

While several publicly listed companies such as MicroStrategy have adopted bitcoin as a treasury asset over recent months, Tesla’s move is notable given that it is the first Fortune 500 company to diversify cash holdings into the cryptocurrency.

“Although the actual amount isn’t large comparatively, the signaling effect and market reflexivity of projecting other global market-leading companies to do the same will have a positive spiral effect on prices,” Singapore-based QCP Capital said on its Telegram channel.

“Reflexivity” is a theory that a positive feedback loop between expectations and economic fundamentals can yield a substantial price rally. Tesla’s bitcoin buys may have validated the long-held bullish narrative that the cryptocurrency acts as a reserve asset. More buyers, therefore, could join the market, putting upward pressure on prices.

The market is now pricing in the likelihood that other corporates will copy Tesla and Microstrategy’s neo-treasury management strategy, according to John Kramer, trader at GSR. “Tides are continually shifting in crypto and what may be lurking close to port are sovereign funds becoming the next wave of institutions to adopt this corporate playbook,” Cramer said in a Telegram chat.

Related: Crypto-Friendly Signature Bank Added to JPMorgan’s ‘Focus List’

Investor interest in call options (bullish bets) has now increased in a sign investors are positioning for a continued price rally.

“We are seeing high volume across the board in call options ranging from $56,000 to $72,000,” Matthew Dibb, co-founder and COO of Stack Funds, told CoinDesk. “If the options market is any indication of the enthusiasm across investors, we will be going a lot higher,” Dibb added.

Additionally, multiple 100-plus call option contracts have been bought at strikes of $44,000, $48,000, and $52,000, according to Swiss-based data analytics platform Laevitas.

The one-, three- and six-month put-call skews, which measure the cost of bearish puts relative to calls, are firmly entrenched in the negative territory, per data provider Skew. That shows call options are drawing higher demand than puts.

However, increased activity in call options ranging from $52,000 to $72,000 does not necessarily mean traders are anticipating a bull market peak around these levels. Besides, trying to predict a precise topside target is pointless, given that the cryptocurrency is in a multi-year bull market, according to Kruger.

At press time, bitcoin is trading mostly unchanged on the day near $46,500. The slight drop from highs looks to be a typical bull breather often seen following a strong rally.

The broader bias would remain bullish as long as the trendline rising from $10,000 is held intact.

The “Elon [Musk] rally” has established $42,500 as the new support, and prices could rise to $50,000 in coming weeks, according to Dibb.

The cryptocurrency may face some selling pressure if regulators express concerns regarding Tesla’s plans to adopt bitcoin as a payment means for its vehicles.

However, Kruger is not worried about a potential regulatory hurdle. “The real worry should be ‘do I have enough crypto exposure’ and not ‘will regulators crash the market.’ I’m not at all concerned at the moment,” Kruger told CoinDesk.

Also read: Apple Should Launch Own Crypto Exchange, RBC Analyst Says

• Binance-Backed DeFi Credit Union Platform Secures Partners, Funding Before Launch
• Siam Bank Launches $50M Blockchain Fund

A 36-year-old Florida-based telco employee was charged Monday over a SIM swapping scam that stole one victim’s cryptocurrency.

Stephen Defiore, 36, received a one-count Bill of Information – a waiver of indictment and agreement to prosecution in court – with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release.

Defiore is the second person charged in connection with a scheme that hit 19 victims in SIM swap attacks, and stole a “significant portion” of cryptocurrency held by a doctor in New Orleans.

Related: Matic Network Now ‘Polygon’ as Platform Targets Ethereum’s L2 Woes

According to the report, Defiore worked as a sales representative between August 2017 and November 2018 for an unnamed phone company. Having access to the company’s customer accounts, he allegedly performed SIM swaps – reassigning a SIM card to another user – as part of a $500 per day arrangement with a co-conspirator.

For each SIM swap, which netted Defiore over $2,300 in total via 12 payments, co-conspirator Ricard Li sent him a customer’s cellphone number, a four-digit PIN and a new SIM-card number for the swap. Li was charged for his alleged involvement in June 2020.

A SIM swam hack occurs when an attacker gains access to a victim’s cellphone account, allowing incoming calls and text messages to be routed to a different device. The attacker is then able to change passwords on a victim’s various accounts including emails and cryptocurrency exchange and bank accounts via SMS verification.

If convicted of the charge, Defiore faces a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, as well as up to three years of supervised release after imprisonment and a mandatory $100 special assessment per count.

Related: Crypto-Friendly Signature Bank Added to JPMorgan’s ‘Focus List’

See also: Irish Man Gets 3 Years in Prison for Stealing $2.5M in Crypto Through SIM Hacks

• Binance-Backed DeFi Credit Union Platform Secures Partners, Funding Before Launch
• Siam Bank Launches $50M Blockchain Fund

A Wisconsin woman has been charged for trying to solicit a murder over the dark web paid for with bitcoin.

According to a report from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Monday, Kelly Harper, 37, used a dark web site to pay the administrator to have a man tracked down and then killed. Harper has admitted to authorities she paid in bitcoin for the planned crime.

Three journalists investigating a story into the site’s dealings discovered the Wisconsin woman had been in communication with the admin, according to the report.

Related: Matic Network Now ‘Polygon’ as Platform Targets Ethereum’s L2 Woes

Upon request, Harper allegedly presented a sum of $5,633.87 in bitcoin to the admin as proof she could afford the hit. The journalists also found similar evidence of a completed bitcoin transfer to another murder for hire website in October.

After the journalists had got in contact with local law enforcement, FBI agents raided Harper’s home where they discovered screenshots of the dark web site on her computer. Their actions came before the murder could be carried out.

Messages were also discovered on Dec. 3, in which Harper said “the target needs to be killed,” while providing details of the man’s appearance, details of his vehicle, his place of work and phone number.

The woman is currently in custody and faces a maximum of 10 years in federal prison if convicted.

Related: Crypto-Friendly Signature Bank Added to JPMorgan’s ‘Focus List’

See also: FBI Needs a Dark Web, Crypto Strategy, DOJ’s Inspector General Says

• Binance-Backed DeFi Credit Union Platform Secures Partners, Funding Before Launch
• Siam Bank Launches $50M Blockchain Fund

Blockfolio has apologized after racist posts were distributed over its cryptocurrency portfolio and news app.

Overnight, at least two messages purporting to be from major cryptocurrency platforms were posted containing racist terms of abuse via “Signals” – Blockfolio’s communications feed aimed to allow token projects to “connect and engage with their communities.”

In a tweet Tuesday morning, Blockfolio said it was “incredibly sorry about the offensive messages posted today.”

Related: U.S. Woman Charged Over Attempted Dark Web Murder-for-Hire Paid With Bitcoin

The firm said no funds were affected and the event did not affect any trading features. “We have revoked access to the compromised Signal submitter and removed the messages,” it said.

Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of the FTX exchange that owns Blockfolio, tweeted that all the app’s trading accounts are being given $10 by way of an apology.

“No members of the Blockfolio team wanted this to happen,” he said. “But we are all responsible for our product and will be doing what we can to fix this. I’ll also be donating to the ACLU today, as will a number of other staff members.”

CoinDesk asked Blockfolio what specifically it plans to do to prevent such abuse of the Signals system in future, but did not immediately receive a reply.

Related: KeepChange Foils Bitcoin Theft but Loses User Data in Sunday Breach

Read more: Portfolio App Blockfolio Adds Crypto, Stock Trading to Capitalize on GameStop Drama

• BitMEX Introduces Data Storage Framework for FATF’s Travel Rule
• Investors Pump $250M Into Reddit Following Social Media Site’s Role in GameStop Mania

Bitcoin marketplace KeepChange says it has managed to limit the ramifications of a security breach on Sunday.

According to a blog post on Monday, the exchange said several bitcoin withdrawal requests had been initiated from customer accounts to an address belonging to the attackers. However, one of the platform’s control subsystems halted the requests, resulting in no bitcoin being lost, the exchange said.

The attackers did, though, manage to steal some customer data including email addresses, names, trade counts, total traded amount and hashed passwords.

Related: U.S. Woman Charged Over Attempted Dark Web Murder-for-Hire Paid With Bitcoin

“Even though passwords were hashed and they are very unlikely to be retrieved from the hashed form, we recommend changing your password as soon as possible,” KeepChange told users.

Withdrawal requests have been disabled until Thursday pending further investigation and allowing users enough time to reset their passwords. From Friday, users will be able to make withdrawal requests as usual.

Meanwhile, deposits and trades remain active and are functioning as normal.

“We have done other required actions in the last hours, to be sure that no similar attacks can occur,” the exchange said.

Related: Blockfolio Apologizes After Racist Terms Posted in Portfolio App

See also: Why Ledger Kept All That Customer Data in the First Place

• BitMEX Introduces Data Storage Framework for FATF’s Travel Rule
• Investors Pump $250M Into Reddit Following Social Media Site’s Role in GameStop Mania

Crypto exchange BitMEX has published a framework of principles for how best to store additional batches of transactional provenance data, a requirement exchanges face as part of new anti-money laundering (AML) rules.

In order to fall in line with the rest of the financial system, virtual asset service providers (VASPs) have been asked to obtain, hold and exchange information about the originators and beneficiaries of transactions, known colloquially as the “Travel Rule.” Global anti-money laundering watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) expects the crypto industry to implement the new rule by June 2021.

The response from the crypto industry has been enthusiastic, including a widely agreed-upon standard for the format of the data payload VASPs must share (known as the InterVASP messaging standard, or IVMS101), as well as a number of technical solutions focused on how best to implement the rule currently being built by crypto firms, banks and consortia.

Related: Investors Pump $250M Into Reddit Following Social Media Site’s Role in GameStop Mania

Less attention has been given to how all this additional customer data should be stored, according to Malcolm Wright, chief compliance officer of 100x Group, the owner of BitMEX.

“Solution providers have been concentrating on the transmission of the data to make sure that it’s immediate and secure,” Wright said in an interview. “But what about when the data actually arrives at its destination? How can you ensure that it’s stored securely and appropriately to the right sort of standards?” 

Wright, who led the development of the data-storage principles (and was also instrumental in working with Sian Jones of XReg Consulting to create the IVMS101 standard), decided to leverage BitMEX’s seasoned security experts, with the intent to “start a conversation” around data storage via an open-source project that industry and regulators can chime in on. 

“This kind of completes the puzzle,” Wright said. “You have the IVMS standard for the format of the data. You have the protocol providers, who will be transmitting the data. And then you have some principles around the storage of the data.” 

Related: Bitcoin Tops $47K After Tearing Through $45K, $46K in Tesla-Fueled Rise

Seychelles-based BitMEX was thrust into the spotlight last year following an enforcement action from U.S. authorities around weak compliance procedures at the firm, which saw arrest warrants issued for some senior executives and co-founders.

BitMEX owner 100x Group hired Wright, formerly the compliance chief at Diginex, in October 2020. Since then the firm’s AML/KYC processes have been revamped, starting with the removal of any historic non-KYC’d accounts on the platform. 

BitMEX’s Travel Rule Data Storage Principles focus on things like access management, encryption standards and keeping Travel Rule data separate from other operational customer data. 

Like the IVMS101 messaging standard, Wright thinks this security benchmark will further grease the wheels when it comes to implementing the FATF mandate, which may involve VASPs looking to onboard each other as they side with certain technical solutions.

“So If BitMEX chooses to be exchanging data with another VASP, then we can say, ‘Are you operating to a minimum set such as these?’ So that also helps to get confidence among VASPs that they can work together,” said Wright.

• TokenInsight: 2020 Cryptocurrency Futures Industry Report
• Fiscal Response to COVID is the “Greatest Backdrop to Bitcoin Ever”

Reddit has raised $250 million in a Series E fundraising round, the company announced Monday night. 

The social media site, which said both new and existing investors participated but did not disclose their names, plans to double its headcount with the funds, as well as build out its “video, advertising, consumer products” and international efforts, according to a blog post. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, this means Reddit plans to have a total of 1,400 employees by the end of 2021 and now enjoys a $6 billion valuation. 

Related: Bitcoin Tops $47K After Tearing Through $45K, $46K in Tesla-Fueled Rise

The company has made headlines over the past few weeks, most notably when its r/WallStreetBets community helped pump GameStop’s share price and other securities to triple-digit growth, triggering Securities and Exchange Commission investigations and Congressional hearings. This mania later spread to Dogecoin and XRP, both of which saw massive price run-ups.

“Time and again, we have seen the power of community and connection alongside the growth and evolution of those communities and the humans behind them,” Monday’s announcement said.

The blog post didn’t mention the GameStop pump, though a Super Bowl ad purchased by the company for Sunday night’s game obliquely referenced it, saying “one thing we learned from our communities last week is that underdogs can accomplish just about anything when they come together around a common idea.”

Reddit did not discuss its current financial situation but noted in Monday’s announcement that it sees over 50 million daily users and said its direct advertising revenue increased 90% over the past quarter, compared to the last quarter of 2019.

Related: TokenInsight: 2020 Cryptocurrency Futures Industry Report

“We continue to invest in building and improving the ways people on Reddit connect – whether that’s traditionally through text-based discussions or through video or live streaming,” the blog post said. 

While Monday’s announcement did not mention its recent crypto forays, it comes just under two weeks after the company expanded its partnership with the Ethereum Foundation in the hopes of “bringing Ethereum to Reddit-scale production.”

• Fiscal Response to COVID is the “Greatest Backdrop to Bitcoin Ever”
• Announcements of Bitcoin Payment Services is Getting “Faster and Louder”

In a run reminiscent of bitcoin’s stunning ascent in early January, the price of leading cryptocurrency blew past $45,000, $46,000 and $47,000 in less than an hour on Monday evening, driven by Tesla’s announcement that it had bought $1.5 billion of bitcoin.

• Bitcoin hit $47,513.57, a new all-time high, before settling back to $47,053.09, up 20.6% in the last 24 hours.
• $45,000 was supposed to have been a milestone of sorts but the cryptocurrency’s race upwards turned it into an afterthought. The cryptocurrency has risen about 67% year-to-date.
• A combination of traders in Asia just waking up to the Tesla news combined with a lack of resistance levels above $45,000 were possible causes for the sudden gap upwards.
• While those might be the immediate catalysts for the sudden surge in the cryptocurrency, they’re not the only reasons for bitcoin’s stunning rise.
• A growing number of big institutional investors including Paul Tudor Jones II and Bill Miller have pushed into bitcoin as a potential hedge against inflation, as the Federal Reserve and central banks around the world pump trillions of dollars of freshly created money into financial markets to stimulate their coronavirus-racked economies.
• Tesla joins publicly traded companies including Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy that have steered corporate money into bitcoin. And from the price of bitcoin today, it’s clear some investors think it’s just getting started.
• “We think this is just the start to a much wider adoption from household institutional names, finally ready to make the crossover into the crypto space,” Joel Kruger, strategist at the cryptocurrency exchange LMAX Digital, said in an email.
• As more institutional investors like Tesla are buying bitcoin and “hodl” it for the long term, bitcoin’s liquid supply is continuing to decline, according to blockchain analytics firm Glassnode’s newsletter on Monday.
• “Currently, around 78% of issued bitcoin are either lost or being hodled,” the newsletter said. “This leaves less than 4 million bitcoin to be shared amongst future market entrants – including large institutional investors such as PayPal, Square,
• Bitcoin’s latest rally also pushed prices for other major cryptocurrencies including ether, algorand, and litecoin, according to CoinDesk 20.
• “Mainstream adoption [for crypto] is happening right before our eyes, and it is taking place before the entire world,” Mati Greenspan, founder and CEO of Quantum Economics, wrote in his newsletter on Monday. 
• With this latest surge, the market value of bitcoin ($860.4 billion) has once again passed that of Tesla ($818.4 billion) after topping it for the first time ever earlier Monday.
  

UPDATE (Feb. 8, 23:35 UTC): Updates to add bitcoin passed $46k for the first time.

• Investors Pump $250M Into Reddit Following Social Media Site’s Role in GameStop Mania
• TokenInsight: 2020 Cryptocurrency Futures Industry Report
• Fiscal Response to COVID is the “Greatest Backdrop to Bitcoin Ever”
• Announcements of Bitcoin Payment Services is Getting “Faster and Louder”

Bitcoin’s price is getting closer to Mars thanks to Elon Musk while ether moons to a new record. Investors are pulling BTC out of DeFi, likely to diversify their profits.

• Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $44,023 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Climbing 14.5% over the previous 24 hours.
• Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $38,051-$44,801 (CoinDesk 20)
• BTC well above the 10-hour and the 50-hour moving average on the hourly chart, a bullish signal for market technicians.

Bitcoin’s price hit a record-high price Monday, soaring to $44,801 at around 13:00 UTC (8 a.m. ET). It’s one month to the day since hitting the previous record of $41,375, according to CoinDesk 20 data.

One catalyst for the price run-up: Entrepreneur Elon Musk’s Tesla (TSLA) plowed $1.5 billion into the cryptocurrency. The company also said it would accept bitcoin for goods and services rendered. 

Related: TokenInsight: 2020 Cryptocurrency Futures Industry Report

Read More: Tesla Invests $1.5B in Bitcoin, Plans to Accept Crypto Payments

“All bets are off the table now. I was worried that [at] around $35,000-$40,000 we were not seeing a huge amount of institutional flows, and over the weekend the market moved higher in a fairly weak fashion,” noted Chris Thomas, head of digital assets for. Swissquote Bank. “But Tesla would have bought over the last few weeks, a little every day.”

Since the start of 2021, bitcoin spot exchange volumes by eight major exchanges tracked by the CoinDesk 20 have been higher than its six-month average. 

This year so far, average trading on these exchanges has been $4.4 billion per day; going back to Aug. 8, 2020, the daily average has been $1.7 billion. As of press time Monday, volume is also higher than that 2021 average, at over $6.7 billion.

Related: Fiscal Response to COVID is the “Greatest Backdrop to Bitcoin Ever”

“Bitcoin is at new highs today in ‘frenzied’ buying, clearing minor resistance from January,” said Katie Stockton, a technical analyst at Fairlead Strategies. Stockton also noted bitcoin has lost steam since its Musk-motivated rally, at $44,023 as of press time. “Signs of exhaustion are associated with today’s steep rally from an overbought/oversold perspective,” she said.

However, the trend remains bullish, Stockton added. “Despite the potential for additional short-term volatility, the long-term uptrend appears healthy behind bitcoin from a momentum perspective.“ 

While some may be skittish about bitcoin’s rise in 30-day volatility over the past three months, other types of traders are certainly enthusiastic about it.

“Tesla buying bitcoin was a mostly predictable move, given the vocal support it has seen from CEO Elon Musk,” said Guy Hirsch, U.S. managing director at eToro.

Read More: Ex-OCC Chief Brooks Calls Tesla’s Bitcoin Buy a Bit ‘Scary’ for Rest of World

“If more companies begin making similar announcements, $50,000 could potentially be within reach during the next few months,” Hirsch added. 

“We think we’re only just scratching the surface when it comes to corporate and institutional participation in the world of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies,” Joel Kruger, cryptocurrency strategist at LMAX Digital, told CoinDesk. “We suspect that moves from visionaries like Tesla will only serve to reinforce the tremendous value proposition that decentralized assets have to offer.”

Meanwhile, ether (ETH) is also hitting records and the asset’s correlation with bitcoin has cropped back up to levels not seen since December. 

The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was up Monday trading around $1,720 and climbing 8.5% in 24 hours as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET). The price hit a fresh all-time high Monday, hitting $1,776, according to CoinDesk 20 data. 

Read More: Ethereum Futures Are Now Trading on CME

The amount of bitcoin held in Ethereum-based decentralized finance, or DeFi, has dropped almost 3.5% Monday, going from over 50,000 to 48,344 BTC as of press time, according to data aggregator DeFi Pulse.

Swissquote’s Thomas notes that Monday may be a day for larger players to start moving some bitcoin around because a fresh bitcoin price high might induce some investors to diversify their profits. 

“Larger hedge funds, etc., [that] had got into bitcoin between $15,000-$20,000 would naturally want to take profits around $45,000-$50,000″ for a profit of 2.5-3x. “I’ve always viewed that as a hard challenge,” Thomas told CoinDesk.

Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are all in the green Monday. Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):

• algorand (ALGO) + 19.9%
• cardano (ADA) + 13.4%
• kyber network (KNC) + 12.1%

Equities:

• The Nikkei 225 index in Asia ended the day in the green 2.1% as Japanese corporate earnings were better than expected for most companies reporting so far.
• Europe’s FTSE 100 closed climbing 0.53% as investors signaled optimism on further U.S. fiscal stimulus despite a poor economic outlook for the European continent.
• The United States’ S&P 500 index gained 0.74% as traders pushed the buy button on stocks amid optimism more government stimulus would lift the economy.

Commodities:

• Oil was up 1.9%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $58.03.
• Gold was in the green 0.95% and at $1,830 as of press time.
• Silver is gaining, up 1.9% and changing hands at $27.32.

Treasurys:

• The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield climbed Monday to 1.169 and in the green 0.15%.

• Announcements of Bitcoin Payment Services is Getting “Faster and Louder”
• Wall Street Shifts Focus From Blockchain Infrastructure to Crypto Assets