CoinDesk Crypto

The price of bitcoin (BTC) topped $25,000 for the first time ever, a mere week after breaking $24,000 for the first time.

• The price of the leading cryptocurrency continued its recent torrid pace, breaking $25,000 Friday night for the first time, and setting a new all-time high of $25,914.46 Saturday morning, before falling back to $25,669.62, up 6.18% on the day. Year-to-date BTC is up more than 250%.
• Institutional investors are perceived to be driving this record-setting run. Among them: Anthony Scaramucci’s Skybridge Capital ($25 million in December); MassMutual ($100 million in December); and Guggenheim (up to 10% of its $5 billion macro fund).

UPDATE (Dec. 26, 16:29 UTC): Adds new all-time high.

Read more: Over $20K? Why Is Bitcoin Worth Anything at All?

• Bitcoin Tops $26K for First Time, Less Than a Day After Passing $25K
• Bitcoin Tops $24.6K on Christmas Day, Sets New All-Time High
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Stays in Tight Range but Gains Dominance as XRP Crumbles
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Rangebound as XRP Plummets After SEC Lawsuit

Turkey will begin piloting a previously undisclosed digital currency in the second half of 2021, the country’s chief central banker Naci Ağbal told members of parliament Friday.

Turkish-language media widely quoted him as follows:

“There is an R&D project initiated on digital money. Currently the conceptual phase of this project has been completed. We aim to start pilot tests in the second half of 2021.”

Related: Bank of Russia Chair: Digital Ruble Is No Threat to Banks

Ağbal’s surprise comments place Turkey on the fast track to a central bank digital currency (CBDC). Turkey seldom discloses any digital currency ambitions; The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), known in monetary circles as the “bank for central banks,” does not even record Turkey as having an active CBDC project in its running database.

Yet Turkey is now angling to overtake many better-known CBDC projects. Although 80% of central banks are considering CBDC according to the BIS, only a handful – Sweden, China, the Bahamas – have progressed to pilot phase/soft launch.

The details of Turkey’s own CBDC project are murky at best. Local crypto outlet Koin Bülteni reported in September that the central bank was hiring experts for its digital currency research and development team.

Among the topics of apparent interest: blockchain, cryptography and big data.

• Fintech Company Launches Platform to Assist in Central Bank Digital Currency Development
• Bank of France’s Deputy Governor Discusses CBDC Progress, Regulatory Changes
• China’s Latest Digital Currency Trial Is Its Most Important Yet

Cryptocurrency exchange EXMO said an estimated $4 million of the cryptocurrency stolen during a hack on Dec. 21 was through the exchange Poloniex.  

• The U.K.-based platform has estimated that a total of 6% of its cryptocurrency has been lost to the attack with an estimated $4 million being withdrawn through Poloniex. The dollar figure of what was lost overall in the hack wasn’t immediately known.
• The exchange said assets cannot be recovered by EXMO due to criminals withdrawing the funds through Poloniex 
• “$1 million in ZEC [zcash] stolen from EXMO have been withdrawn through the Poloniex crypto exchange,” an EXMO spokesperson told CoinDesk Friday.
• On the day of the attack, EXMO said it had contacted cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex with a request to block an associated account and informed London police about the breach.
• EXMO reported losses in six of the 57 cryptocurrencies it supports: ethereum classic. Each digital asset is hosted on its own server, the firm said.
• The platform said it hopes to soon be able to fully reinstate withdrawals and deposit functions on its exchange which has resumed most of its work.
• “We are making some final preparations and checks at the moment before enabling depositing and withdrawing on EXMO. It will soon be ready,” said the EXMO spokesperson. 
• EXMO stressed that those users affected by the incident will be covered by the exchange.
• Poloniex did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read more: Crypto Exchange EXMO Says Hackers Have Stolen 5% of Total Assets

• EXMO Exchange Now Says It Lost 6% of Total Crypto Assets in Monday’s Hack
• Crypto Exchange EXMO Says Hackers Have Stolen 5% of Total Assets
• Twitter Hires Noted Hacker as Head of Security Months After Bitcoin Scam
• Charity Turns Down Bitcoin Donation From Darkside Hackers

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp said it’s halting XRP trading and deposits for all U.S. customers on Jan. 8, 2021, because of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent filing, alleging XRP is a security.

• U.S. customers will be able to withdraw their XRP even after trading is halted, Bitstamp said.
• Other countries are not affected, Bitstamp said.

• Bitstamp is the first major cryptocurrency exchange to take action on XRP in response to the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple Labs.

This story is developing and will be updated.

Read also: An SEC Victory in Ripple Case Would Render XRP ‘Untradeable,’ Market Pros Say

• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Stays in Tight Range but Gains Dominance as XRP Crumbles
• XRP Liquidations Soar as SEC Lawsuit, Token Airdrop Whipsaw Markets
• Coinbase, Other Big Exchanges ‘Between Rock and a Hard Place’ on Delisting XRP
• Roisman Named Acting SEC Chairman, Peirce Tweets

“O, come all ye HODLers…” “Bitcoin we have seen on high…”

Regardless of what song one wants to ruin, there’s no denying bitcoin has been the gift that keeps on giving this holiday season, cutting through $24,500 on Christmas Day and setting another all-time high.

• The price of the leading cryptocurrency, set a new all-time mark of $24,667.63, before falling back to $24,442.24, up 5.92% on the day.
• The record price comes a week to the day bitcoin set the prior record of $24,122.67.
• With the latest price increase, bitcoin’s year-to-date percentage gains have grown to over 240%.

“So have yourself a merry little Bitmas…”

Sorry, couldn’t resist one more. Happy holidays, everyone!

Related: Bitcoin Hits $25K for First Time Ever

Read more: Over $20K? Why Is Bitcoin Worth Anything at All?

• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Stays in Tight Range but Gains Dominance as XRP Crumbles
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Rangebound as XRP Plummets After SEC Lawsuit
• First Mover: XRP Plunges 20% as Traders Assess SEC’s Ripple Suit

Decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator 1inch has issued its own governance token. 

Users of 1inch and the Mooniswap DEX, founded by the same execs, will get rewarded with a Christmas gift of sorts and have a say on matters like fees, referral rewards and other governance issues.

The token, named 1INCH and running on the Ethereum blockchain, will be distributed to all wallets that have previously interacted with 1inch (under certain trading conditions). The giveaway follows the approach taken by Uniswap, which made a surprise airdrop of UNI tokens to past users (worth well over $1,000 at the time) in September.

Related: Here Comes the Open Lending Era

Again similar to Uniswap, 1inch is also announcing a liquidity mining program that will be launched Dec. 26 for 1INCH liquidity providers.

Mooniswap, in turn, has just been rebranded as 1inch Liquidity Protocol, so that the team has all its startups consolidated under one brand, 1inch spokesperson Sergey Maslennikov told CoinDesk. 

Just as Uniswap’s UNI airdrop boosted activity on that site, CEO Sergej Kunz said the new token will help speed up the growth of 1inch.

“With the right community incentives, we see a chance to get a critical mass of liquidity to beat Uniswap,” Kunz told CoinDesk through a spokesperson. 

Related: Camila Russo on Building The Defiant and the Future of DeFi

Kunz estimates that around 50,000 wallets will get the 6% of 1INCH supply in the first round of distribution. The current supply of 1INCH is 1.5 billion tokens.

Among other things, 1INCH token holders will be able to vote on the settings of the so-called Spread Surplus pool, which accumulates the “leftovers” of swap transactions when the price of a swapped token changes during the time of transaction.

“Let’s say, a user swaps some ETH for DAI and sees the amount of DAI they should get. If while the transaction is processed the price changes and the user should get more DAI for their ETH, this is the spread surplus,” Maslennikov explained. 

These “leftovers” will get accumulated in a special pool, the proceeds from which will be swapped for 1INCH and either claimed by the governance participants or distributed to the referrers.

1inch was launched in 2019 at the ETHGlobal hackathon by Kunz, a former software engineer at Porsche, and CTO Anton Bukov, a former smart-contract developer at NEAR Protocol. The project raised $14.8 million in two rounds from Binance Labs, Pantera and others earlier this year.

EDIT (Dec. 25, 2020, 10:47 UTC): This story was updated with a new starting date for the liquidity mining program.

• Polkadot-Based DeFi Insurance App Raises $1.95M Led by KR1
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Dumps to $21.9K; ETH 2.0 Affected Ether Locked in DeFi

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ordered Tierion to pay back investors in its TNT tokens after finding the data verification startup’s $25 million initial coin offering (ICO) violated securities laws.

TNT holders and ICO investors who sold their tokens at a loss have 60 days to ask Tierion for what is essentially a refund – at cost, plus interest. Node operators can sell their compensatory TNT back to Tierion for .01 cent plus interest.

Tierion must immediately disable trading of its ERC-20 token, which runs on the Ethereum blockchain, under the settlement disclosed Wednesday. It will pay the SEC $250,000 in penalties. Tierion did not admit or deny wrongdoing, according to the SEC. The SEC also issued Tierion a Reg D waiver, meaning it won’t have to register future private placements of securities because it cooperated.

Related: Crypto Hedge Fund Founder Stefan Qin Accused of Fraud by SEC

The order effectively blows up 1 billion TNT tokens. At the time of its 2017 ICO, Tierion pitched them as the “method of settlement” between users of its data verification network, the “Chainpoint protocol,” and an “incentive” to secure the network. The order said Tierion sold 350 million TNT to 4,800 investors. 

But Tierion, which at one point had buy-in from the likes of Microsoft, plans to continue without TNT. Founder and CEO Wayne Vaughn told CoinDesk in a text message the settlement allows Tierion “to move forward without a heavy regulatory burden.” He framed TNT’s demise as the token going into “retirement.”

“This announcement does not impact the availability of Tierion’s current products or open-source software,” Tierion said in a Medium post.

• MoneyGram Takes Wait-and-See Approach as SEC Sues Partner Ripple
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Recovers to Nearly $24K; Ether Rides Bitcoin’s ‘Coattails’
• An SEC Victory in Ripple Case Would Render XRP ‘Untradeable,’ Market Pros Say

The Takeaway

• Bitcoin (BTC) traded around $23,310 as of 19:00 UTC (2 p.m. ET), slipping 1.3% over the previous 24 hours.
• Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $22,644.56 – $23,672.82 (CoinDesk 20)
• Derivatives market hints at more volatility ahead.
• With XRP’s sell-off, bitcoin’s dominance of the crypto market increases.

A mere $1.2 billion worth of bitcoin changed on the eight exchanges tracked by the CoinDesk 20, the lowest level in 10 days. 

The relative quiet of the holiday season could potentially give way to some downside at the start of the new year, according to technical analyst Katie Stockton, managing partner at Fairlead Strategies.

Related: Coinbase, Other Big Exchanges ‘Between Rock and a Hard Place’ on Delisting XRP

“Bitcoin is digesting its gains in a consolidation phase after having confirmed its breakout to new all-time highs with its mid-month push higher,” said Stockton. “Former resistance near $19,500 is now initial support. Overbought conditions have not had an impact on momentum,” she said, though that is “perhaps more likely in January, which appears prone to risk-off positioning as it pertains to other asset classes.”

Traders borrowing to buy bitcoin may also end up endangering prices in the not-too-distant future, according to analyst Alex Krüger. 

“The crypto market became extremely levered up since the $20K breakout, and implied volatility spiked higher as traders repriced,” Krüger said. “High leverage translates into weaker hands and makes price vulnerable to large corrections. That is why we have been seeing such large two-way price moves since. This is normal given such market dynamics. In such conditions negative news would have an outsized market impact.”

A hint of what’s to come – as early as Friday – may also be found in the derivatives market. 

Related: Market Wrap: Bitcoin Rangebound as XRP Plummets After SEC Lawsuit

“We will witness the largest expiry in Deribit’s history tomorrow [Dec. 25] as 86,000 option contracts will expire with a notional value of over $2 billion,” said Luuk Strijers, chief commercial officer at Deribit, the world’s largest bitcoin options exchange. About 35% of all options on the exchange will expire Friday, leading them to expect some volatility on Christmas Day.

“Max pain is at a significantly lower level, possibly indicating volatility to come,” Strijers added.

As Deribit defines it, the max pain price is the strike price with the most open interest for puts and calls and the price at which the underlying asset (such as bitcoin or ether) would cause financial losses for the largest number of option holders at expiration.

Thursday also marked the December expiration of bitcoin futures on the CME, with 4,309 contracts changing hands, much lower than the previous day’s 13,829.

Read More: SEC Gives Broker-Dealers Room to Handle Crypto Securities

All is certainly not quiet, calm or bright for XRP. Its downward slide continued Thursday, with the embattled cryptocurrency taking another 16% hit over the course of the most recent 24 hours. Since Monday, when Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse gave the heads-up that the Securities and Exchange Commission was going to file an action claiming that XRP is a security, the cryptocurrency lost more than half its value. While still the third-most valuable crypto, according to CoinDesk 20 data, its market cap is now back down to $26.6 billion, roughly where it was in early November. 

On the heels of XRP’s troubles, bitcoin’s share of the total crypto market has increased to nearly 69% from 65% in just the past week, according to data compiled by CoinMarketCap. 

Read more: Coinbase, Other Big Exchanges ‘Between Rock and a Hard Place’ on Delisting XRP

Ethereum

Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was down 2.3% Friday, trading around $596 as of 19:00 UTC (2:00 p.m. ET).

For those tracking decentralized finance, the amount of ether locked in DeFi contacts remains just shy of 7.3 million ($4.3 billion worth), according to data site DeFi Pulse.

Read more: FinCEN’s Proposed Crypto Wallet Rule Might Hit DeFi

Other markets

Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 were mixed, with eight winners and 10 losers Monday (the remaining two are stablecoins).

Notable winners as of 19:00 UTC (2:00 p.m. ET):

• Stellar (XLM) + 9.8%
• Orchid (OXT) + 4.0%
• Cardano (ADA) + 4.4%

Notable losers:

• OMG Network (OMG) – 6.7%
• Algorand (RAND) – 6.1%
• Chainlink (LINK) – 5.6%

Equities: 

• Nikkei 225 (Japan) 26,668.35 (+143.56 or +0.54%)
• The FTSE 100 (U.K.) 6,502.11 (+6.36 or +0.10%)
• The S&P 500 (U.S.) 3,703.06 (+13.05 or +0.35%)

Commodities: 

• Oil was up 0.23%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $48.23.
• Gold was in the green 0.27% and at $1,883.20 as of press time.

Treasurys:

• The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield fell 29 bps to close the short week at 0.926%.

• Bitwise Liquidates XRP Position in Crypto Index Fund Following SEC Suit Against Ripple
• First Mover: XRP Plunges 20% as Traders Assess SEC’s Ripple Suit

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez may try to turn his city into a hotbed for cryptocurrency innovation.

Suarez tweeted Thursday that he is “absolutely exploring” making Miami, the seventh-largest city in the U.S., home to the country’s first crypto-centric municipal government, seemingly endorsing concepts from tokenization to on-chain voting. He tagged new city resident Anthony Pompliano, founder and partner of Morgan Creek Digital and a crypto Twitter celebrity, for help.

In a subsequent tweet, Suarez said he wants South Florida “on the vanguard of legislation that promotes crypto and makes us forward-leaning on innovation.” He said he’d reach out to Wyoming’s blockchain doyenne, Caitlin Long, for assistance on that front.

Related: Author Ben Mezrich on Capturing the Winklevii and Plans for a ‘Bitcoin Billionaires’ Movie

Suarez has been pushing recently for Silicon Valley discontents and hopeful tech startups, fed up with California’s taxes and regulations and particularly San Francisco’s crime-ridden and feces-covered streets, to move to Miami. The crypto angle may well be the latest strategy of that bid.

Earlier Thursday, Suarez appeared to buy into bitcoin‘s growing appeal as an alternative investment with a tweet on Ben Mezrich’s book about the Winklevoss twins, “Bitcoin Billionaires.”

• Norway Central Bank Official Says ‘No Acute Need’ to Introduce a Digital Currency
• The Case for $500,000 Bitcoin
• Is Asteroid Mining Really Our Best Argument for Bitcoin Over Gold?

Cryptocurrency exchange Livecoin claims to have suffered what it called a “carefully planned attack.”

The Russian exchange said in a web post it has “lost control of all of our servers, [backend] and nodes” and pleaded with clients to cease making deposits, trading or interacting with the exchange. “We were not able to stop our service in time,” the post said.

It was not immediately clear if clients funds’ were affected in the breach. CoinGecko charts indicate Livecoin usually handles about $50 million in daily trading volume. However, in the last 24 hours volume climbed to $805 million.

Related: From SIM-Swaps to Home-Invasion Threats, Ledger Leak Has Cascading Consequences

Livecoin CEO Ivona Zlatova did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

This story will be updated.

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Liquidations for XRP futures contracts have soared at year’s end as bullish signals in November followed by decidedly bearish news in December whipsawed the token’s price.

Over $1.5 billion worth of XRP futures contracts have been liquidated since the start of November, per data from analytics provider Bybt. Barely $700 million in liquidated futures contracts were recorded between March and October. 

In November, the price of XRP skyrocketed over 220% to two-year highs just below $0.80 as traders anticipated a scheduled token airdrop event by the Flare Network to all XRP holders. In short, anyone holding XRP would automatically receive a portion of the new Spark token, spurring new buyers to accumulate XRP.

Related: Coinbase, Other Big Exchanges ‘Between Rock and a Hard Place’ on Delisting XRP

Adding fuel to the frenzy, leading U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced its plans to support the upcoming airdrop, per CoinDesk’s previous reporting. 

“XRP experienced massive upward price movements in November due to retail investors’ interest on the Spark airdrop scheduled for Dec. 12, 2020,” said Florent Moulin, a cryptocurrency researcher at data provider Messari. “The market also saw experienced investors accumulating XRP in anticipation of a retail-led bull market.”

The acute XRP bull trend quickly ended when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Ripple for allegedly violating federal securities laws in selling the cryptocurrency to retail consumers, which raised $1.3 billion over a seven-year period. 

Traders reacted negatively to the news as XRP instantly started giving back large chunks of its gains from the previous month. Institutional investors followed suit with cryptocurrency money manager Bitwise liquidating its index’s entire XRP position and prominent brokerages like OSL notifying clients it halted all XRP trading. 

Related: Market Wrap: Bitcoin Rangebound as XRP Plummets After SEC Lawsuit

Both events – the airdrop and the lawsuit – have pushed XRP price volatility to its highest level since July 2018, per Coin Metrics data, with a more than 130% increase in volatility since early November. 

Sharp downward price action for XRP is probably due to a combination of factors, Moulin told CoinDesk. But the most significant is likely the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple. 

Also noteworthy is increased selling by Ripple co-founder Jed McCaleb, who sold over $120 million worth of XRP in December, Moulin said, an amount over three times larger than previous months. 

Some of December’s downward price movement was also caused by XRP holders selling after receiving tokens from the airdrop event, Moulin said. 

Regardless of the reason, since news of the SEC’s lawsuit broke XRP has dropped over 60% and fallen below its pre-airdrop frenzy levels in early November, hitting $0.21 on Wednesday. 

And with the price still dropping and over $350 million in futures contracts liquidated the two days before Christmas Eve, XRP investors are left to face a not-so-happy holiday season.

• Bitwise Liquidates XRP Position in Crypto Index Fund Following SEC Suit Against Ripple
• Hong Kong Trading Platform OSL Suspends XRP Services as SEC Sues Ripple

Japan is gearing up to launch a digital currency in both the public and private sectors as it trails China, which is in the trial stage of launching its own.

• According to the Japan Times, the country’s Digital Currency Forum aims to create “some form” of digital currency similar to Facebook’s diem plan, by 2023.
• The group is preparing to conduct a feasibility study for its virtual currency in 2021.
• “China has prompted moves toward digital currency (around the world),” Hiromi Yamaoka, a former Bank of Japan official, told the Japan Times. 
• China has done so at “surprising speed” while “central banks tend to take a cautious stance,”  added Yamaoka, who expects China to officially launch its digital yuan in 2022.
• China has been accelerating its push toward the adoption of a digital currency as the People’s Bank of China works with banks and commercial entities on public pilots to gauge user experience.
• In October the People’s Bank of China launched a pilot program that provided digital yuan to citizens selected by lottery in Shenzhen, and in Suzhou earlier this month.

Read more: Digital Yen Would Make Crypto Markets ‘More Lively,’ Says CEO of Monex Group

• Japan’s SBI, Securitize Bringing Security Tokens to Crypto Wallet for Institutions
• Mt. Gox Creditors’ Wait Nearly Over as Trustee Announces Draft Rehabilitation Plan
• Japanese City to Trial Blockchain Voting System
• Citigroup Helping World Governments Build Digital Currencies, CEO Says

Elad Roisman has been named acting chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a tweet by Commissioner Hester Peirce congratulating him.

• The news comes a day after former Chairman Jay Clayton announced that yesterday was his last day. Clayton had previously said he would step down by the end of the year.
• Roisman was appointed by President Trump as an SEC commissioner two years ago.
• Perceived as friendly to cryptocurrencies in general, Roisman had served as chief counsel for NYSE Euronext, which was eventually sold to the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), parent company of the Bakkt futures exchange.
• At the time of his appointment to the SEC, Roisman said to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs that
  “the SEC must examine and re-examine its rules, regulations and guidelines to ensure that they are still working as intended to accomplish the SEC’s mission. This is most recently manifested in areas such as data protection and cybersecurity, as well the emergence of new investments and technologies such as initial coin offerings and blockchain.”
• The U.S. Senate must now confirm the nomination.

The story is developing and will be updated.

• Coinbase, Other Big Exchanges ‘Between Rock and a Hard Place’ on Delisting XRP
• SEC Chairman Clayton Says Wednesday Is His Last Day in Office
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Rangebound as XRP Plummets After SEC Lawsuit
• SEC Gives Broker-Dealers Room to Handle Crypto Securities

New anti-money-laundering (AML) regulations need to exclude Hong Kong’s bitcoin automated teller machines (ATMs) in order to sustain innovation, according to the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong, reports the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

• Hong Kong regulators have stepped up their supervision of the cryptocurrency industry and are in the process of introducing new regulations that will restrict the city’s digital currency trading by prohibiting them from serving retail investors.
• The government’s plan to regulate cryptocurrency exchanges in Hong Kong could mean ATMs may also be off-limits unless an appeal to exclude them from the extended regulations goes ahead, said the report.
• “Stricter oversight of bitcoin has created uncertainties for start-ups and their blockchain-related investments,” said Leo Weese, co-founder of the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong, the SCMP reported.
• Weese added, “To restrict retail individuals from accessing bitcoin would be overshooting the government’s goals of promoting innovation and financial inclusion.” 
• There are around 60 bitcoin ATMs across Hong Kong where users can buy and sell digital currencies, the SCMP said.

Read more: Hong Kong’s Securities Watchdog May Soon Regulate All Crypto Trading Platforms

• BitcoinPoint, Cashzone Allow Users to Sell Bitcoin Using 16K ATMs Across UK
• Hong Kong Trading Platform OSL Suspends XRP Services as SEC Sues Ripple
• Huobi Crypto Exchange Returning to US After Winning Nevada Trust License
• Bank of Russia Chair: Digital Ruble Is No Threat to Banks

Bitcoin holders will now be able to sell their bitcoin from 16,000 Cashzone automated teller machines (ATMs) across the U.K. under an agreement reached with London-based cryptocurrency company BitcoinPoint.

• Under terms of the agreement, after registering, Cashzone users will be able to enter an amount to be withdrawn on the BitcoinPoint website and scan a QR code. Users would then get an SMS message with a pin code to be entered at a Coinzone ATM.
• BitcoinPoint CEO Benoit Marzouk said there is a demand for the ATMs as registering on a cryptocurrency exchange can be complex for non-tech savvy people, adding that the scarce availability of bitcoin ATMs made the accessibility of bitcoin problematic.

Read more: Number of Bitcoin ATMs Up 85% This Year as Coronavirus Drives Adoption

• Hong Kong ATMs Must Be Excluded From Coming AML Regulations, Group Says
• UK FCA Grants Crypto Firms Temporary Registration as It Deals With Applications Backlog
• Bitcoin Exchanges Flood London’s Metro With Adverts
• SpaceChain Awarded $585K Grant to Co-Develop Decentralized Satellite System

Talks regarding a possible acquisition by PayPal of bitcoin custodian BitGo have fallen through, Fortune reported, citing multiple sources.

• PayPal was exploring the possible purchase of cryptocurrency companies including BitGo, according to a Bloomberg report in October.
• BitGo CEO Mike Belshe would not confirm whether the PayPal report was true in an interview with Fortune but commented that over the years BitGo has been “in talks with everyone” and will not accept a “small exit.”
• Whatever talks there may have been have come to an end, sources told Fortune, with one saying that “PayPal is exploring other potential acquisitions.”
• BitGo was the first U.S. crypto firm to secure a broker-dealer approval, transfer agent registration and trust company recognition, allowing it to provide custody and record-keeping services.
• PayPal has launched crypto buying and selling, as well as crypto merchant payments, following its Oct. 21 announcement that sent shockwaves across the industry.
• Emails to both companies requesting comment on the report were not immediately answered.

Read more: PayPal Said to Be in Talks to Buy Crypto Firms Including BitGo: Bloomberg

• Square’s Cash App Now Lets Customers Get Bitcoin Back on Purchases
• Mizuho Analyst: Bitcoin Will Make PayPal ‘Center of People’s Financial Lives’
• Paxos, Firm Powering PayPal’s Crypto Service, Raises $142M
• Evercore Says PayPal’s Crypto Offering Could Bring Big Business Boost

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced Thursday it is closing its South Korea operations after eight months due to low usage and volume.

• The exchange said it has been challenging to operate in South Korea due to low transaction volumes, which resulted in tight liquidity for its users. The Korean affiliate of Binance had been relying on its parent for liquidity but that ability was about to be banned under a law in the country, in effect March 2021, prohibiting order book sharing.
• Binance said it will close all new registrations and deposits on the local exchange starting today at 2:00 p.m. local time. Binance Korea users will be able to redeem funds in Korean fiat currency or other cryptocurrencies and complete withdrawals before Jan. 29, 2021; after this date, withdrawals will be inaccessible.
• Once the operations of Binance Korea have been closed, the team said it would reassess its business approach in the country.

Read more: Crypto Exchange Binance Suspends Trading Over ‘Systems Messaging Error’

• South Korea’s Hashed Raises $120M Venture Fund for Crypto Deals
• Binance Labs Leads $12M Funding Round for Multi-Asset Wallet Developer MATH
• Binance Expects to Earn From $800M to $1B This Year, CEO Says: Report
• Crypto Exchange Upbit Sets Withdrawal Delay in Bid to Tackle Fraudsters

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has accused the founder of hedge fund Virgil Capital, which specializes in cryptocurrency arbitrage, of fraud.

• Stefan Qin, the 23-year-old founder of Virgil Capital, has been accused by the SEC of “fabricated records” for failing to redeem $3.5 million in investments and attempting to withdraw $1.7 million in investor funds to pay off Chinese loan sharks, the SEC said.
• On Tuesday, the SEC applied to U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield in the Southern District of New York for an emergency order to suspend $25 million in digital assets owned by another fund managed by Qin.
• The SEC accuses Qin of fraud involving the Virgil Sigma Fund LP of New York and VQR Multistrategy Fund LP of the Cayman Islands.
• The hedge fund manager is being accused of altering spreadsheet tracking investments at 39 cryptocurrency trading platforms in 2019.
• Earlier this year Qin falsely informed investors looking to redeem $3.5 million investments from their funds that the money would be moved to the VQR Multistrategy Fund but the funds were not transferred, according to the SEC.
• Qin also asked VQR head trader Antonio Hallak to assist with withdrawing $1.7 million from the fund, claiming he had borrowed money from Chinese loan sharks to invest in the Sigma fund, according to Reuters.
• Qin, whom the SEC said is believed to be currently in South Korea, is prepared to cooperate with the SEC and is “committed to ensuring that no investors are harmed,” said his lawyers, Reuters said.
• The SEC is seeking an order permanently restraining Qin from participating in the sale, issuance, purchase or offer of any security except on his personal account, a disgorgement of profits and civil penalties.

Read more: SEC Charges Former State Senator Over Digital Asset ‘Scam’

• Tierion to Repay ICO Investors Up to $25M Plus Interest in SEC Settlement
• MoneyGram Takes Wait-and-See Approach as SEC Sues Partner Ripple
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Recovers to Nearly $24K; Ether Rides Bitcoin’s ‘Coattails’
• An SEC Victory in Ripple Case Would Render XRP ‘Untradeable,’ Market Pros Say

Digital asset manager Grayscale Investments reached $16.4 billion in assets under management (AUM), up from the $13 billion the firm announced last week.

• Data tweeted by the firm showed its largest holdings remain in bitcoin, with the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust having $14.1 billion in the top crypto asset. The firm’s Ethereum Trust now has $1.81 billion in AUM.
• Grayscale also has trusts for litecoin ($125.0 million), bitcoin cash ($70.7 million), ethereum classic ($67.7 million) and others with less significant holdings including XRP, XLM and zcash.
• New York-based Grayscale is owned by Digital Currency Group, the parent company of CoinDesk.

Read also: SkyBridge’s Scaramucci Sees Bitcoin Rally in ‘First Inning’

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U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Jay Clayton said his last day in office would be today, Wednesday, Dec. 23.

• Only the precise timing of this is a surprise. Clayton announced in November he would be leaving by the end of the year but hadn’t specified a date.
• Clayton certainly knows how to leave on a high note. His last day comes 24 hours after the commission filed suit against fintech firm Ripple as well as its CEO and chairman, sending shockwaves throughout the cryptocurrency industry.

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