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The Centre Consortium, the Coinbase- and Circle-founded project that oversees the USDC stablecoin, has hired Wall Street veteran David Puth as its first CEO.

Puth has held senior executive roles at JPMorgan and State Street, and most recently was the CEO of CLS, the foreign exchange settlement provider made up of over 70 big banks and financial institutions.

Puth also has direct experience of blockchain technology in a regulated financial environment, having been appointed as a strategic adviser to enterprise blockchain builders R3, back in January 2019. 

Related: Libra Rebrands to ‘Diem’ in Anticipation of 2021 Launch

“I could not be more enthused about joining Centre at this critical time in the industry,” Puth said in a statement. “The growth of USDC over the course of 2020 is indicative of what I expect will be the path for Centre business activities and that of future Centre-supported stablecoins.”

USDC is the second-largest stablecoin by market cap at $2.98 billion. Having expanded to additional blockchains in recent months, some list USDC’s market cap even higher.

Centre was co-founded in 2018 by crypto exchange Coinbase and digital asset firm Circle, the latter having navigated a remarkable series of pivots.

“As Centre scales to add new members, currencies and stakeholders, we are blessed to have an industry leader who has the understanding and experience to help build this new international monetary system,” Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said in a statement.

Related: Coinbase Brokered MicroStrategy’s $425M Bitcoin Purchase, Exchange Says

Read more: US Government Enlists USDC for ‘Global Foreign Policy Objective’ in Venezuela: Circle CEO

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Cryptocurrency derivatives platform ErisX launched cash-settled bounded futures on Tuesday, after seeing little interest from the market for its physically settled futures. 

ErisX CEO Thomas Chippas said the company had released physically settled futures thinking traders would be interested in trading spot bitcoin with the protection of a futures exchange and a futures clearinghouse. Cash-settled contracts don’t require the delivery of bitcoin like physically settled contracts, allowing investors who can’t touch bitcoin to still profit from it.

Physically settled futures won’t become more popular until the exchange can offer physically traded futures on margin, Chippas said. ErisX is working with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to allow the exchange to offer margin in the future.

Related: Bitcoin Faces Volatility Rise as Futures Market Shows Signs of Overheating

In the meantime, the exchange is launching cash-settled bounded futures, which provide upper and lower bounds on gains and losses, protecting investors from large price movements 

Cash-settled futures have been trading in the U.S. since 2017, when CME and Cboe launched their own products, though Cboe discontinued its bitcoin futures in 2019.

Last month, ErisX got CFTC approval to offer additional trading services.

Related Stories

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• ErisX Unit Gets CFTC ‘OK’ to Clear Fully Collateralized Swaps

Bitcoin was lower, retreating after rallying over the past 24 hours to a new all-time-high price of $19,920, based on CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index. 

Cryptocurrency analysts predicted bullish traders might next target the $20,000 threshold, though the market could struggle to break through if large potential holders choose to take profits at that level. 

The “resistance into $20,000 could be more psychological than anything else,” said Denis Vinokourov, head of research at the digital-asset prime broker Bequant. “It would make sense that once we are finally able to get past this threshold, that the rally has legs.”

Related: Ethereum 2.0 Beacon Chain Goes Live as ‘World Computer’ Begins Long-Awaited Overhaul

In traditional markets, European shares rose, led by banks and energy firms, and U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open on the first day of the final month of a tumultuous 2020. Gold strengthened 1.2% to $1,798 an ounce. 

Market moves

All sorts of reasons were cited Monday as bitcoin pushed to a new all-time-high, ranging from PayPal’s (PYPL) recent entry into the space to the collective market shrug in response to the massive outflows from the OKEx cryptocurrency exchange following after a five-month withdrawal suspension was lifted. 

What’s clear is that most analysts, traders and industry executives are talking about the sudden influx of big investors and Wall Street firms nosing into bitcoin and digital-asset markets for the first time. As noted Monday in First Mover, “institutional adoption” has become among the buzziest of buzzwords from bitcoin bulls and marketeers. 

The key driver of their interest appears to be the desire for a hedge against inflation, during a year when the deep economic toll from the coronavirus has prompted the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks to pump trillions of dollars of emergency liquidity and monetary stimulus global financial markets.  

Related: Google Searches for ‘Bitcoin Price’ Hit 18-Month High

“With so much excess liquidity in the system, the original investment case for bitcoin is being vindicated.” Rich Rosenblum, who heads trading at the crypto firm GSR, told CoinDesk’s Daniel Cawrey.

On Monday, just before bitcoin prices began their single-day price climb of 8.3% to end the month, the market was filled with chatter about a new endorsement from an analyst at the $631 billion investment firm AllianceBernstein. (“I have changed my mind about bitcoin.”) Later in the day, CNBC reported that strategists for another Wall Street firm, BTIG, said cryptocurrency had come of age, and that bitcoin should reach $50,000 by the end of next year. 

“The stream of institutions commenting and allocating to BTC became a flood of good news that reinforced the narrative,” Matt Blom, head of sales and trading at the cryptocurrency-focused financial firm Diginex, told subscribers in an email. 

CoinDesk’s Muyao Shen reported that support from institutional investors might help to sustain the latest rally, contrasted with the bull run of 2017 when prices briefly touched these levels before quickly tumbling and then hibernating in a bear market for most of 2018.  

“Broadly speaking, institutional positions and high-net-worth individuals are leading the way this time,” Jason Deane, an analyst at Quantum Economics, told Decrypt.

Another difference from 2017 is that digital-asset markets appear to have evolved dramatically in the past few years and appeared to have handled the recent uptick in intensity and transaction volumes without too many glitches. (The well-trod fiat-to-cryptocurrency on-ramp Coinbase did report delays in processing some bitcoin withdrawals due to network congestion.) 

“The trading, settlement and custody services are all far more sophisticated and mature, which instills confidence,” GSR’s Rosenblum said. 

Major spot exchanges, where retail customers casually buy the world’s oldest cryptocurrency, have seen an uptick. Combined daily volume for Coinbase, Bitstamp, Kraken, Gemini and ItBit was at $1.5 billion as of press time Monday, much higher the $488 million average of the past six months, CoinDesk’s Dan Cawrey reported.

Jeff Dorman, chief investment officer at Arca Funds, wrote in his weekly blog that some big investors, due to regulatory concerns, might be using futures on U.S. commodities exchanges or publicly traded investment vehicles in traditional stock markets to gain exposure to bitcoin – instead of just jumping into digital-asset markets. He provided a chart showing how key closures on public U.S. markets over the past week coincided with big swings in 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week cryptocurrency markets.

“The institutions are coming all right, but they are taking the local bus while the rest of us are on the express,” Dorman wrote. 

The upshot is that bitcoin is reaching new all-time-highs when institutional adoption hasn’t even really got going, in the truest sense. 

– Bradley Keoun

Bitcoin watch

Bitcoin’s one-month implied volatility has risen to 6.5-month highs, reflecting increased expectations of price turbulence over the next four weeks.

According to data source Skew, the metric influenced by demand for call and put options has increased to 89%, the highest level since May 18, having bottomed out near 44% in September. The doubling of implied volatility has happened alongside bitcoin’s rally from $10,000 to $19,920 and looks to have been caused by relatively higher demand for call options (bullish bets).

That’s evident from the record low one-, three- and six-month put-call skews, which measure the cost of puts (bearish bets) relative to calls. The options market looks positioned for a continued rally.

Some analysts say a healthy pullback could be in the offing as bitcoin’s inflow to exchanges has exceeded outflows since the Thanksgiving sell-off, according to data source CryptoQuant. “That on-chain metric could indicate a short-term bearish trend, sending bitcoin back to a level of around $16,000,” said Ki Yong Ju, chief executive officer of CryptoQuant.

At press time, bitcoin is trading near $18,800, representing a 4% drop on the day.

– Omkar Godbole

Read More: Google searches for ‘bitcoin price’ hit 18-month high

What’s hot

• Ethereum 2.0 Beacon Chain goes live as “world computer” begins long-awaited overhaul (CoinDesk) 
• Coinbase reported delays processing bitcoin withdrawals on Monday as cryptocurrency’s price move to all-time-high created congestion on blockchain network (CoinDesk) 
• Over-the-counter cryptocurrency trading firms report uptick in purchases by institutional investors during latest bitcoin rally (The Block)  
• While some near-term pricing correction is likely to be expected, analysts who spoke to CoinDesk said bitcoin’s latest rally will be more sustainable for the long term compared with 2017 (CoinDesk)
• European Central Bank President Lagarde says stablecoins “pose serious risks” to financial security (CoinDesk) 
• 100x Group, holding company for embattled cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, picks former head of German stock exchange as new CEO (CoinDesk) 
• Upstart bitcoin exchange LVL, backed by Anthony Pompliano, Jimmy Song and Willy Woo, cuts trading fees to ratchet up competition with Coinbase and Gemini, plans new debit card with Mastercard (CoinDesk) 
• Authorities shut off electricity to bitcoin miners in China’s Yunnan province (CoinTelegraph)

Analogs The latest on the economy and traditional finance

• “Rather than seeking to create a Chinese-style digital dollar, Joe Biden’s nascent administration should recognize the benefits of integrating Bitcoin into the U.S. financial system,” economic historian Niall Ferguson writes in op-ed (Bloomberg Opinion)  
• Fed Chair Powell calls economic outlook “extraordinarily uncertain” in prepared remarks ahead of scheduled appearance Tuesday before U.S. Congress (CNBC)
• China’s new anti-dumping rules on Australian wine could escalate tensions, signal broad effort to tamp down dissent among trading partners (Bloomberg)
• As coronavirus cases surge in Hong Kong, banks including Goldman Sachs, Standard Chartered, UBS and Citigroup bring back work-from-home policies (Bloomberg)
• Tech startups are helping to modernize India’s agriculture industry (Nikkei Asia Review)

Tweet of the day Related Stories

• Market Wrap: Bitcoin All-Time High Tops Out at $19,850 as Ether Options Market Goes Mega-Bullish
• Bitcoin’s All-Time High Price Rally Is Sustainable. Analysts Explain Why

The Libra Association put together by Facebook last year is rebranding in further efforts to distance itself from the original Facebook-led vision rolled out last year.

The group, composed of 27 member firms, announced Tuesday it was changing its name to Diem (the Latin term for “day”) as it gears up for the potential 2021 launch of a single, dollar-pegged stablecoin. The organization has also finalized its leadership team, which includes Dahlia Malkhi as chief technology officer, Christy Clark as chief of staff, Steve Bunnell as chief legal officer and Kiran Raj as executive vice president for growth and innovation and deputy general counsel. 

The new hires join the previously announced CEO Stuart Levey, Managing Director James Emmett, Chief Compliance Officer Sterling Daines, Chief Financial Officer Ian Jenkins and General Counsel Saumya Bhavsar.

Related: Stablecoins ‘Pose Serious Risks’ to Financial Security, ECB’s Lagarde Says

Social media giant Facebook unveiled Libra in June 2019 after over a year of secretive development and research work. At the time, the project envisioned a stablecoin backed by a basket of fiat currencies, one that could be used worldwide as a means of exchange. It immediately prompted international regulatory backlash, with lawmakers demanding that all development cease until they could better understand it, provide some level of regulatory oversight and ensure there were no risks to financial stability.

A number of its original members departed, mainly financial services firms citing regulatory risks, before Libra could even get started.

Libra’s governing body, which was formally created in November 2019, later tightened the scope of the project, announcing in April 2020 that it would launch a group of stablecoins that were each backed by a single fiat currency or asset instead of the basket-backed token. 

Levey believes regulators are warming up to the project, particularly through the changes and the implied distance from Facebook (which wasn’t named in Tuesday’s press release), which isn’t itself a member of the governing association, though its subsidiary Novi (formerly Calibra) is. Another founding member includes Breakthrough Initiatives, a space exploration group run in part by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Related: ‘Basis Cash’ Launch Brings Defunct Stablecoin Into the DeFi Era

“I think regulatory stakeholders really are welcoming a more autonomous association. They want to see an association strong enough to make its own decisions and have a leadership team that is capable of directing the project. It is in part for that reason we decided to change the name, to move from Libra to Diem, and that will be effective [Tuesday],” he told CoinDesk. 

Libra is ready to launch its first stablecoin, the “Diem dollar,” as soon as the new entity is licensed through the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). The Financial Times first reported that a dollar-pegged coin could launch last week.

Levey declined to provide a timeframe, noting that FINMA will make its decision in its own time. 

Launching coins

Diem’s coin, when it launches, will be compliant with international regulations at the protocol level, Levey said. He said this means that compliance with regulations such as the Financial Action Task Force’s “travel rule” will be baked into the network, as will other features like consumer protection.

“That then brings you back to the question of why change the name. … One of the reasons is that the original name, I think, was tied to an earlier iteration of the project that [saw a] difficult reception from from regulators around the world and we’ve changed the proposition dramatically,” Levey said.

The organization is still engaging with regulators worldwide to clarify how widely each token can circulate and which fiat currency the next coin will be pegged to. Levey said a number of factors will go into these considerations, including the comfort level of regulators.

Read more: Libra’s Long Road From a Facebook Lab to the Global Stage: A Timeline

The project is ready to launch at a technical level, though developers are continuing to test and iterate on the design, Levey said. And while the project has evolved in scope since its unveiling, it still uses a blockchain.

“We think that there are technological and governance advantages from having a blockchain. It permits innovation and collaboration in the open source space that we think adds real potential to the overall project, it adds collaboration and innovation and frankly one of the things I love about it is there’ll be use cases developed and innovations that we at the Diem, Libra Association would never have thought of ourselves,” he said.

International remittances and merchant payments are still the two primary use cases that the project is eyeing at the moment. 

And while Levey said he doesn’t feel “a particular sense of urgency” around launching a basket-backed stablecoin, he can see that being a possibility in the distant future.

“We would aspire to issue other single currency stablecoins over time, and then we wouldn’t issue a multi-currency stablecoin, but … this is the beauty of programmable money, you can create a multi-currency stablecoin, if we have a certain number of individual single currency stablecoins out there,” he said.

Related Stories

• Libra Plans Dollar-Pegged Stablecoin Launch in January 2021: Report
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Cryptocurrency lender BlockFi has taken its first step in the payments space.

The New York City-based company, known for its lending operation, interest-bearing crypto products and trading desk, announced Tuesday it will launch its long-awaited bitcoin rewards credit card in the first quarter of next year.

CEO Zac Prince said the credit card will be the first of its kind in an industry that is already saturated with bitcoin reward debit cards.

Related: Leading Japanese Financial Firm SBI Holdings Rolls Out Crypto Lending Services

“A lot of the debit cards that exist in the crypto ecosystem are the kind that are oriented around this idea of spending your crypto, which at least clients at BlockFi are not interested in doing,” Prince told CoinDesk in an interview. “They want to hold their bitcoin and earn a yield on it.” 

While BlockFi is working on functionality that will allow users to pay down their BlockFi credit card debt with crypto, Prince said the company will encourage customers to use the card for everyday spending, not for racking up debt. The interest rates on BlockFi’s loans are much better than the annual percentage rates on the credit card, Prince added.

Read more: Coinbase to Launch Crypto Debit Card in US for Retail Spending

The crypto lender is putting out the new product about a quarter behind schedule because of how many of its partner organizations had to work from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Related: Bad Loans, Bad Bets, Bad Blood: How Crypto Lender Cred Really Went Bankrupt

“You have to work with quite a few partners to bring a credit card to market,” Prince told CoinDesk in August of this year. “Some of them haven’t really handled the transition from being fully in-office to being fully remote as smoothly as companies like BlockFi have.” 

Visa is acting as the card issuing network, Evolve Bank & Trust provides the Bank Identification Number (BIN) that allows BlockFi to connect to the payments network and Deserve is managing the payments flow technology. 

BTC back

The card spends dollars but earns rewards in bitcoin. The rewards back are 1.5% of fiat purchases, and the bitcoin users receive is deposited into their BlockFi accounts. The annual fee for the card is $200. For the first year, BlockFi is giving users who spend at least $3,000 on the card in the first three months a stipend of $250. 

The revenue for BlockFi will be one part interchange fee (which will be split between customer rewards and revenue) and another part annual fee, Prince added.

“This will add payments revenue as a category” on the balance sheet, Prince said. “Payments generally is a revenue type that gets pretty healthy multiples in capital markets.” 

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

Since the credit card is a premium Visa card, BlockFi plans to offer more credit and debit cards in the future that are also tied to customers’ crypto accounts. Prince also said he envisions a future where customers can deposit their paychecks into a BlockFi account, send remittances with BlockFi, and do bill pay and other regular banking activities as well. 

“We’re not announcing what we’re going to do in year two yet,” Prince said. “We intend – like we’re doing in year one – to make it as much of a no-brainer decision as we can for folks to hold the card.” 

Prince couldn’t give exact credit limit ranges, but expects to see limits vary from $5,000 on the low end to $25,000 on the high end, depending on the creditworthiness of the customer.

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Stablecoin pioneer Uphold is claiming to have launched the first tradable retail carbon token.

The Universal Protocol Alliance, a coalition of blockchain companies led by Uphold and including Bittrex Global, Ledger, Certik and Infinigold, announced the Universal Carbon (UPCO2) token Tuesday. 

Each blockchain-based UPCO2 token represents a certified measure of carbon dioxide. They can be bought and held as an investment, or burned to offset a company or individual’s carbon footprint, the group said.

Related: Cred Says Fraudulent Activity Led to Loss of Funds; Law Enforcement Investigating

A rather overloaded term, “carbon credits” can refer to both government-issued credits traded on regulated markets, and voluntary carbon offsetting where credits can help remove emissions via projects that plant trees, for instance. Blockchain technology has been touted as a way to prevent the double counting (or double spending) of carbon credits in all areas and markets.

Read more: Carbon Credits Have a Double-Spend Problem. This Microsoft-Backed Project Is Trying to Fix It

Uphold is starting out by tokenizing voluntary carbon credits, in particular REDD credits which are high quality, easy to understand and make up about 58% of the voluntary carbon market, explained JP Thieriot, co-founder of the UP Alliance and CEO of Uphold. Each UPCO2 Token represents one year-ton of CO2 pollution averted by a certified REDD+ project preventing rainforest loss or degradation, he said. 

Based on the Ethereum ERC-20 standard, the tokens are backed by a Voluntary Carbon Unit (VCU), a digital certificate issued by international standards agency Verra, which allows certified projects to turn their greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions into tradable carbon credits.

Related: Energy Web Is Starting With Ripple in Its Bid to Make Crypto Provably Green

Today, the retail market for voluntary carbon credits – via sites like TerraPass or Cool Effect – allow access, but not holding or trading, which is the important distinction, said Thieriot.

“We are the first people in the world that are making these credits accessible to retail, and holdable,” he told CoinDesk in an interview. “So there’s lots of retail sites that allow you to offset the trip you just took to New Zealand or give somebody a clever Christmas present. But they don’t allow the buying and holding for investment or speculative purposes.”

When he began looking at voluntary credits as fungible assets, Thieriot expected the prevailing “NGO mindset” was probably going to be sceptical of a project to harness a younger generation’s speculative interest. 

“Actually every single conversation we had, people totally got it. They all understood that if we can pull that trick off, it could change the world,” Thieriot said.

Read more: Climate Startup Nori Raises $4M to Solve Carbon Market Double-Spending

Voluntary carbon offsetting is also of interest to companies like Amazon and Microsoft and Nike, said Thieriot, who are no longer interested in waiting around for governments to take the lead, and have set out to neutralize their current carbon footprint, or even their entire historical footprint, by their own initiative.  

Meanwhile, demand for carbon credits is set to outstrip supply by a factor of four to one in 2020, according to the World Bank. And a change in the political climate in the U.S. looks likely, with President-elect Joe Biden announcing a climate administration.

The UPCO2 tokens are to undergo a “curing process,” which amounts to a primary issuance, said Thieriot, whereby they will be made available from today on the Uphold platform. 

“Initially we are going to offer it on Uphold for about four to six weeks and then Bittrex Global will light it up,” Thieriot said. “And then we’d like every exchange in the world to pick them up.”

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• Climate Startup Nori Raises $4M to Solve Carbon Market Double-Spending
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The top operators of the giant PlusToken scam are heading to prison after being found guilty of defrauding investors out of 14.8 billion yuan ($2.25 billion)-worth of cryptocurrency in the eastern province of Jiangsu, China.

• According to a report from the South China Morning Post on Tuesday, leader Chen Bo set up PlusToken as a blockchain project in 2018 and attracted millions of people with promises of high returns on investment. They were also required to pay membership fees in cryptocurrencies. 
• As previously reported, all of PlusToken’s 27 alleged masterminds were arrested this summer, along with another 82 core members who were hiding in Cambodia, Vanuatu, Vietnam and Malaysia.
• According to today’s report, Chen used social media and offline events to recruit members.
• In January 2019, Chen and his team fled to Cambodia to continue the PlusToken scam. Chen cashed out an estimated 127 million yuan ($19.32 million) to buy properties and luxury cars. 
• The Yancheng, Jiangsu court handed Bo and 13 other operators prison terms of two and 11 years, with fines ranging from 120,000 yuan ($18,000) to 6 million yuan ($900,000).
• Billions in cryptocurrency collected by the fraud were also seized by authorities. A recent court document suggested the total value of the assets may have been as high as $4 billion.

Read more: US Justice Department Extradites Alleged Co-Founder of Crypto Ponzi Scheme From Panama

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Serenity is knocking.

The first stage of the next-generation proof-of-stake (PoS) Ethereum 2.0 is now live as of 12:00 UTC Tuesday, according to Beaconcha.in.

A generalized blockchain for decentralizing computer-based applications – from iPhone games to government bonds – Eth 2.0 has been under construction since the genesis of the current proof-of-work (PoW) network in 2015.

Related: First Mover: You Call That a Record? Bitcoin’s November Gains Are 3x Stock Market’s

Tuesday’s launch concludes the opening act, or “Phase 0,” of Ethereum’s consensus mechanism transition, which will see the network – whose native cryptocurrency, ether, is worth $70 billion by market cap – fundamentally change how it settles payments while in motion.

“The launch of the beacon chain is a huge accomplishment and lays the foundation for Ethereum’s more scalable, secure, and sustainable home,” Ethereum Foundation researcher Danny Ryan told CoinDesk in an email. “There is still much work to do, but today we celebrate.”

The Beacon Chain will be the backbone of a new Ethereum blockchain, a network intended to keep pace with PayPal and Visa in terms of processing speed, while rivaling them in terms of transparency and payment finality.

Eth 2.0 has at least two more technical hurdles to hit its ever-moving timeline: Dynamically breaking the PoS Ethereum blockchain into multiple datasets called “shards” and adopting Rollups, a throughput solution for decentralized applications (dapps). 

Related: Ethereum 2.0’s Genesis Day Is Officially Set for Dec. 1

The Beacon Chain’s near-term functionality is quite limited. 

Like the handful of testnets before it, participants in Eth 2.0 now help “store and manage the registry of validators,” according to Ethereum infrastructure provider ConsenSys. Yet, accounts and transfers remain locked until at least Phase 2 while the Eth 1.x blockchain continues in parallel. In other words, Eth 2.0 won’t be usable for paying your electric bill until 2022 at the earliest.

Ethereum history 201

Ethereum is the creation of Russo-Canadian developer Vitalik Buterin, also the founder of Bitcoin Magazine and member of multiple early alternative currency projects such as Mastercoin. First announced in 2013 at a Bitcoin conference in Miami, Florida, Buterin envisioned a network capable of leveraging Bitcoin’s blockchain architecture for purposes larger than just a digital currency – well outside the bounds of pseudonymous bitcoin developer Satoshi Nakamoto’s original intent.

As demonstrated in his early writings on the subject, Buterin argued a PoS consensus mechanism would be central to this new type of blockchain. Buterin has long held that PoS offers higher security guarantees in the long term than Bitcoin’s mining-based PoW blockchain. Many Ethereum developers also favor PoS over Bitcoin’s PoW due to environmental concerns.

Under the auspices of the Ethereum Foundation, Eth 2.0’s central specification written by Buterin and other developers was coded into multiple programming languages in what are called clients. 

The decision to program Eth 2.0 into multiple languages remains a chief reason for its patient advance towards launch. Indeed, Ethereum developers have shifted timelines throughout the last five years to many investors’ frustration. 

Launching the Beacon Chain

Tuesday’s launch, however, is the culmination of not only years of sustained blockchain research, but a more recent push goaded by investor anxiety. A perceived lack of development reached a fevered pitch this past summer as further delays put the Beacon Chain’s 2020 launch in question.

The Ethereum community’s expectations were “loud and clear,” Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake said in a July tweet, setting “Phase 0 genesis in 2020” as the goal. As of Tuesday, that goal has been met.

A flurry of client activity followed Drake’s tweet in preparation for a mainnet launch: the Medalla testnet on July 22, followed by Spadina and Zinken in late September and early October, concluding with Pyrmont’s deployment on Nov. 18.

The long-awaited deposit contract for Eth 2.0 was released Nov. 4 by the Ethereum Foundation after one further October delay, with a targeted genesis date of Dec. 1. For once, Ethereum was on time.

In order to launch, the deposit contract needed 524,288 ETH seven days before the genesis date. Although large quantities of ETH were put into the contract, including some $1.4 million by Buterin himself, it took the better part of two weeks to fill the contract.

However, the contract’s conditions were satisfied Nov. 23 – nearly six years to the day of Ethereum’s first Devcon conference in Berlin, developer Lefteris Karapetsas pointed out on Twitter.

A final week gave clients an additional buffer to adjust any last-minute specifications. As of publication, 880,992 ETH worth some $542.7 million is currently locked in the deposit contract, according to CoinDesk price data.

Related Stories

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U.S. cryptocurrency platform Coinbase facilitated MicroStrategy’s $425 million bitcoin buy earlier this year, the exchange said.

In an announcement Tuesday, Coinbase revealed that MicroStrategy’s initial $250 million investment, which occurred over a five-day period in August, came via Coinbase Prime, the exchange’s crypto brokerage arm formed following the acquisition of Tagomi in May.

That was followed up in September by a further $175 million investment from the Virginia-based business intelligence firm, bringing MicroStrategy’s total investment to $425 million in bitcoin. MicroStrategy became the first publicly-traded company to acquire a large chunk of bitcoin to hold on its balance sheet as a primary treasury reserve asset.

Related: Coinbase Reports Delays in Processing Bitcoin Withdrawals Due to Network Congestion

In retrospect, on-chain data suggests Coinbase was transacting with a large customer in the months leading up to MicroStrategy’s September announcement. A series of large quantities of bitcoin – nearly 80,000 in total – began moving out of Coinbase Pro’s reserve starting in the middle of the year and ending in the autumn. “Those outflows went to Coinbase Custody wallets (interoperated with OTC wallets), not exchange wallets,” explained Ki Young Ju, CEO of analytics firm CryptoQuant, adding that Coinbase usually uses 8,000 BTC to make an initial custody wallet and requiring a minimum custody deposit of $10 million.

Michael Saylor, MicroStrategy’s CEO, did not respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment by press time. Coinbase’s announcement quoted him from an earlier MicroStrategy press release as saying that investing in bitcoin is part of the firm’s “new allocation strategy.” The strategy aims to maximize long-term value for shareholders while reflecting the cryptocurrency’s use as a store of value with greater “appreciation potential than holding cash.”

See also: MicroStrategy CEO Explains Why Bitcoin Is ‘a Million Times Better’ Than ‘Antiquated’ Gold

In Tuesday’s announcement, Coinbase outlined three reasons why MicroStrategy chose the San Francisco-based exchange: the firm’s smart order routing, trading algorithms and white-glove service. Coinbase also said it had been involved in several pre-trade calls with the firm during the onboarding process and was asked to conduct a small “test trade.”

Related: Bitcoin Trading Fees on PayPal, Robinhood, Cash App and Coinbase: What to Know

The test trade assessed data gathered from Coinbase and was analyzed by the exchange’s OTC and Coverage teams. When an optimal pace to minimize market impact was decided upon and successfully executed, Coinbase received a green light from MicroStrategy to proceed with the “larger investment.”

Following the test, Coinbase executed real-time trades using the time-weighted average price algorithm – a strategy that takes into account the average price of an asset over a specified time to minimize market impact.

“Our system takes a single large order and breaks it into many small pieces that are executed across multiple trading venues,” Coinbase said via email. “The trading team achieved an average execution price that was less than the price at which buying started.”

The revelation is a notable public relations win for Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong following a weekend New York Times article alleging mistreatment of Black employees and several service outages during volatile market periods.

Armstrong’s exchange can now claim bragging rights in the market as the one that helped a publicly listed company take a nine-figure leap of faith on bitcoin as a reserve asset.

UPDATE (Dec. 1, 13:30 UTC): Modified the headline and fourth paragraph to clarify that the quote from Michael Saylor included in Coinbase’s announcement was sourced from an old MicroStrategy press release.

UPDATE (Dec. 1, 14:17 UTC): Added chart and comments from CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju.

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• NYT Reveals Claims of ‘Racist or Discriminatory’ Treatment of Employees at Coinbase
• Coinbase Goes Down Again as Bitcoin Price Action, Volatility Heat Up Again

General interest in bitcoin looks to have risen alongside the top cryptocurrency’s rally to a new peak price.

As of last week, Google Trends, a barometer for gauging general or retail interest in trending topics, returned a value of 21 for the worldwide search query “bitcoin price”. That’s over double the value of 10 observed roughly a month ago and the highest level since June 2019.

Bitcoin set a new record high of $19,850 on Monday, having narrowly missed the previous lifetime high of $19,783 last week. The cryptocurrency surged over 40% in November to register its biggest monthly gain since May 2019.

Related: Market Wrap: Bitcoin All-Time High Tops Out at $19,850 as Ether Options Market Goes Mega-Bullish

What makes bitcoin’s ascent more impressive is that traditional assets seldom chart a 40% rally to record highs in a single month.

However, the market is far from being in a state of retail frenzy seen in December 2017, when the google search for the term “bitcoin price” returned a maximum value of 100. The data may validate analysts who say this year’s rally is mainly driven by increased institutional participation.

Also read: Bitcoin’s All-Time High Price Rally Is Sustainable. Analysts Explain Why

Several public-listed companies such as MicroStrategy, Square, Cypherpunk Holdings have bought bitcoin in the wake of the coronavirus crisis in the global economy, strengthening bitcoin’s appeal as a reserve asset. PayPal has also started offering cryptocurrency services, possibly driving a bitcoin supply shortage.

Related: Bitcoin’s All-Time High Price Rally Is Sustainable. Analysts Explain Why

“The differences between 2020’s run toward $20,000 and 2017’s is that this current one is against a backdrop of greater geopolitical chaos, increased adoption but less general audience interest and less new coin supply,” Clem Chambers, founder and CEO of financial markets website ADVFN.com, told CoinDesk in an email.

Many observers expect institutions to power more substantial gains over the long run. “We believe we have just scratched the surface,” Arjun Subburaj, co-founder and CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Giottus, said in an email. “We will have the mother of all bull runs in 2021 when the cryptocurrency gets adopted by masses and cryptocurrencies go mainstream.”

According to Chambers, bitcoin will sail through $20,000, and the “sky is the limit” in the long term.

Traditional and non-financial media widely reported $20,000 as the record high back in December 2017. As such, a notable rise in retail interest may not be seen until prices establish a foothold above that level.

At press time, the cryptocurrency is changing hands at $19,593, up 5% over 24 hours.

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Struggling British soccer club Wigan Athletic may have a new investor to save the day, as banker and bitcoin magnate Jonathan Rowland is named the latest bidder, according to a Monday report from The Sun.

• Wigan went into administration in July 2020, only four weeks after a Hong Kong-based consortium took over the club. The coronavirus pandemic is said to have had a significant impact on the football club’s finances.
• The estimated cost for taking the club out of administration is around £3 million ($4.02 million) and a further £5 million ($6.69 million) is needed to convince the English Football League (EFL) of its long-term plans. 
• According to the report, Rowland is “willing to fund” a bid proposed by former professional soccer player Ray Ranson and former Wigan chairman Darren Royle.
• Rowland is the founder of bitcoin finance app Mode and online investment company Jellyworks, launched at the height of the dot-com boom.
• He is reportedly close friends with Prince Andrew and worth an estimated £600 million ($803 million). In 2005, Prince Andrew unveiled a life-size bronze statue of Rowland smoking a cigar in Guernsey.
• Two unnamed Spanish investors are also bidding for the soccer club, with meetings taking place in November, reports Wigan Today.

Also read: Blockchain Enabled Fantasy Soccer Firm Sorare Raises $4M in Seed Fund Round

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An identity management provider backed by PayPal, Foxconn and others has been acquired by Nevada-based holding company Blockchains LLC.

Cambridge Blockchain principals Matthew Commons, Alex Oberhauser, Muthu Arumugam and the firm’s software developers will join Blockchains’ digital identity team, with complete integration targeted for the beginning of 2021. The financial terms of the deal were not made public.

The acquisition, announced Tuesday, is all geared towards the release of an un-hosted wallet around April of next year, said Blockchains Executive Vice President Lee Weiss.

Related: Bitcoin Trading Fees on PayPal, Robinhood, Cash App and Coinbase: What to Know

“We reached out to Cambridge and had discussions with them, and it was clear that we shared a common ethos,” said Weiss. “We ended up making a deal and the transaction closed last week and we’re thrilled that they’ve already started with us, right after Thanksgiving.”

Read more: PayPal Makes Its First-Ever Investment in a Blockchain Startup

Cambridge’s expertise in areas like biometrically-secure credentialing and document provenance will all feed into the wide-ranging plans of Blockchains LLC, the owner of some 67,000 acres of land in Nevada with designs on a smart-city development of sorts.

In June of last year, Blockchains acquired Ethereum startup Slock.it, whose founders Christoph and Simon Jentzsch became Blockchains’ vice president of technology and director of blockchain development, respectively.

Related: A Bitcoin Shortage? PayPal and Cash App Buying More Than 100% of New Supply

Read more: Foxconn Backs Blockchain Identity Startup in $7 Million Series A Round

A spokesperson for PayPal Ventures declined to comment on the Cambridge Blockchain acquisition.

Zack Seward contributed reporting.

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Cryptocurrency hardware wallet provider Ledger has hired a luxury brand executive in a bid to build a better user experience for its products and services.

As reported by the Financial Times on Monday, former LVMH digital lead Ian Rogers has joined the French startup as its chief experience officer and will lead its mission to expand consumer business and increasing cryptocurrency adoption.

LVMH is a French group specializing in luxury goods and boasting some of the world’s biggest retail names as subsidiaries. Rogers was responsible for increasing the digital presence of globally known brands, including Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Christian Dior, Bulgari and TAG Heuer.

Related: Libra Association Taps Saumya Bhavsar as General Counsel for Payments Subsidiary

“When I look at cryptocurrency, privacy and security, I have a similar feeling I did about music in the early 2000s at the beginning of the streaming era,” Rogers told the FT.

Prior to his work at LVMH, Rogers spent time at Apple where he helped the tech giant implement and roll out its music streaming service.

While Rogers has officially left the luxury conglomerate, he said he would remain as an advisor on its digital initiatives and operate an annual competition for luxury and fashion known as the LVMH Innovation Award.

See also: ‘Convincing’ Phishing Attack Targets Ledger Hardware Wallet Users

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100x Group, the holding group for HDR Global Trading Limited, owner and operator of the embattled BitMEX cryptocurrency derivatives platform, named Alexander Hoptner as the CEO.

• Announced Tuesday, Hoptner will become head of the Seychelles-registered holding group, effective January 2021.
• Hoptner is the former CEO of the German stock exchange Borse Stuttgart GmbH and more recently liquidity provider Euwax AG, which he has led since 2018. 
• The reshuffle from the group’s head comes at a time when 100x’s original founders have been embroiled in a civil lawsuit over allegations of facilitating unregistered trading and other violations.

See also: BitMEX Accelerates Mandatory ID Verification After Charges of Lax Anti-Money Laundering Controls

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Upstart crypto exchange LVL wants to take on U.S. giants Coinbase and Gemini by removing trading fees.

Announced today, LVL (pronounced “level,” as in playing field) is making its entire service free to use. LVL, which is backed by Morgan Creek Digital’s Anthony Pompliano and Bitcoin advocates Jimmy Song and Willy Woo, previously had no trading fees but only for subscription users.

LVL is also partnering with Mastercard to release two debit cards in early 2021. A standard plastic debit card will be available to free-tier users for a $10 issuing fee, while a metal Mastercard is included with three months of LVL’s Premium service.

Related: Crypto.com Takes Steps Toward Financial Licensure in Malta

The new features come as bitcoin is hitting all-time highs.

“We’ve always been behind a subscription paywall but now we’re just making our entire service free to use,” said LVL CEO Chris Slaughter. “You can buy and sell bitcoin, you can use the plastic debit card. So now in North America, there’s a regulated exchange that’s 100% free to use.”

Read more: Bitcoin Trading Fees on PayPal, Robinhood, Cash App and Coinbase: What to Know

LVL’s point is that large U.S. exchanges like Coinbase and Gemini with remarkably similar pricing schemes create a lack of competition. If it takes a scrappy minnow with just $2.5 million raised to date to disrupt the monopoly effects of these crypto exchanges, Slaughter said, then bring it on.

Related: Morgan Creek CEO Says Bitcoin Doing ‘Extremely Well’ Due to Fed Reserve’s Dollar Devaluation

“We are a super scrappy business contender by nature,” he said. “Like, we only have seven people but we have the first Mastercard approval in North America. We’re registered with FinCEN. And not only do we have bank accounts, they are full checking accounts.” (LVL also provides FDIC insurance on those accounts through banking platform Evolve, Slaughter said.)

Revenue model

The exchange makes its money, Slaughter explained, by charging $3 for withdrawals, which primarily covers network fees. (Coinbase charges a $1–$5 network fee.) The trading platform also charges $5 for same-day bank transfers and wires, which covers the exchange’s risk provisioning credit to users and generates some income for LVL, Slaughter said.  

The premium service at $9 per month, which also includes live-chat facility with a banker, is the means by which LVL Autopilot brings liquidity to the platform. The system runs industry-standard market-making algorithms, providing liquidity to traders and generating passive income for the Autopilot user, says Slaughter.

“Based on our current number of pro users, and the way we expect liquidity to grow following this announcement, we expect to pass Coinbase’s liquidity within the 2% band in January,” said Slaughter. 

Read more: 5 Reasons Why Bitcoin Just Hit an All-Time High Price

For now, LVL is available in 28 states and territories representing 60% of the U.S population, and is expected to service 94% of Americans by the end of 2021, Slaughter said.

“William [Woo] and Jimmy [Song] were involved so freakishly early that they actually have founder shares,” said Slaughter. “Pomp got involved in the second half of last year and we have regular weekly meetings with him to talk about marketing.”

Song said the aim is to even the playing field for users who are currently being scalped for fees.

“Level is a revolutionary exchange that will change the game,” Song said via email. “Unlimited trading allows for really interesting innovations like an autopilot market-making which will give users a return on their Bitcoin.”

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With the holiday season approaching and cryptocurrencies led by bitcoin (BTC) surging in price, charities are warming to the opportunity to accept donations of the digital tender. 

Slated for Dec. 1, the crypto rendition of the annual worldwide charity event #GivingTuesday  – #BitcoinTuesday – is back for another year, spearheaded by crypto donations platform The Giving Block. 

According to the organization, while last year’s Bitcoin Tuesday event managed to attract only 12 non-profits, this year over 120 such organizations including Save the Children, No Kid Hungry and The Tor Project have signed up for the event. The non-profits will accept donations in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and litecoin (LTC), among others. 

Related: US Congressman Tom Emmer Will Accept Crypto Donations for Reelection Campaign

“In general, as the price goes up, you see a lot more donations. And we saw that happen a lot in 2017,” said Alex Wilson, co-founder of the Giving Block, adding that donations may even rise because people may look to offset their tax liability amid rising prices for crypto assets.  

While charity is its own reward, making the donation in cryptocurrencies can help users avoid some capital gains taxes they might otherwise have incurred had they cashed out their crypto and donated fiat, tax experts have noted.

Since cryptocurrencies are treated like property by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and some other tax agencies around the world, taxable events occur every time a user converts crypto to fiat.

But like stock donations, users can donate cryptocurrencies, get a tax write off-and not have to worry about paying capital gains tax on the cryptocurrency they donate. 

Diversifying donations

Related: Children’s Heart Charity Receives $48K in Crypto Donations

Hope for Haiti, a nonprofit organization which works toward improving education, health and water facilities for residents of the Caribbean nation, is one the charities accepting crypto donations. According to the non-profit’s CEO, Skyler Badenoch, the idea was in part spurred by a need to diversify donation sources. So it did some research on the market. 

“We know how much litecoin it would take to pay a teacher’s salary, we know how much XRP it would take to plant a tree,” said Badenoch. He noted that the non-profit is also keen on exploring how blockchain technology can help add transparency to the charity sector. 

A non-profit focused on tackling child hunger in the United States, No Kid Hungry, is another organisation which will be taking part in the Bitcoin Tuesday campaign. The non-profit, similar to Hope for Haiti, also indicated that it swaps gifted crypto for fiat upon receipt. 

“Similar to stock donations, we convert cryptocurrency donations into U.S. dollars immediately,” said Diane Clifford, managing director of constituency development at No Kid Hungry.

A Bitcoin tradition

In addition to the Giving Block campaign, users can also make crypto donations through BitGive. 

Founded in 2013, BitGive helped co-host one of the first Bitcoin Giving Tuesday events in 2014 and has since continued to support charities in the United States and overseas. The first  crypto-specific registered non-profit organization, BitGive uses the Bitcoin blockchain and RSK sidechain to help donors seee where the money is going.

“We tackled these more simple concepts many years ago,” said founder Connie Gallippi. “We are excited to now have grown and developed a sophisticated platform leveraging the technology directly and demonstrating the beauty of bitcoin and blockchain to a mainstream audience.” 

Since those early days, BitGive has added a layer of transparency through its GiveTrack tool, allowing donors to follow the money and see where and how it is allocated. Some of its most recent project announcements include partnerships with Heifer International, an organization that works to eradicate hunger and poverty, and Black Girls Code.

In an effort to give newcomers to crypto donations an easy way to donate, BitGive has announced that donors can now make donations on its GiveTrack platform using credit/debit cards or Apple Pay through Wyre. 

“Our platform will automatically convert their donation into bitcoin and send BTC to the charity’s wallet,” said Connie Gallipi, founder of BitGive, in an email. She added that this way mainstream users who never owned cryptocurrencies could take advantage of the blockchain-associated transparency without the hassle or friction of having to buy some.  

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Leading cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, on a day when the price of bitcoin (BTC) surpassed its all-time high, said it is experiencing delays processing BTC withdrawals due to Bitcoin network congestion.

• Deposits, buys and sells are not impacted, the exchange said.
• Coinbase has suffered a number of issues – mainly outages – during busy trading periods this year including most recently on Nov. 26.
• The most recent issue comes as BTC eclipsed its all-time high of $19,783 Monday morning en route to setting a new record of $19,864 before giving back some of those gains, trading at $19,478.89, up 6.90% at press time.

This story is developing and will be updated when more information is known.

See also: Coinbase Goes Down Again as Bitcoin Price Action, Volatility Heat Up Again

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Bitcoin’s price hit an all-time record high Monday as positive market factors converged. Meanwhile, ether options traders are paying heavy premiums on the asset’s potential to hit new records as well.

• Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $19,436 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 6.6% over the previous 24 hours.
• Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $18,093-$19,850
• BTC above its 10-day and 50-day moving averages, a bullish signal for market technicians.

Bitcoin’s price hit an all-time high in the past 24 hours, trading as much as $19,850, according to CoinDesk 20 data. The price then dipped and was at $19,436 as of press time. 

Read More: Bitcoin Price Sets New Record High Above $19,783

Related: Bitcoin’s All-Time High Price Rally Is Sustainable. Analysts Explain Why

“Institutional inflows may have been much of the driving force behind this rally, but it’s been retail investors that have helped bitcoin pick up steam in recent weeks,” said Zac Prince, chief executive officer of crypto lender BlockFi. ”Balances on our retail accounts have grown over 25% in the last 30 days, compared to just under 10% for institutional,” he added. 

Major spot exchanges, where retail customers casually buy the world’s oldest cryptocurrency, have seen an uptick. Combined daily volume for Coinbase, Bitstamp, Kraken, Gemini and ItBit was at $1.5 billion as of press time Monday, much higher the $488 million average of the past six months. 

The steady rise of bitcoin’s price since Saturday followed a drop during a market holiday in the U.S. last week that bitcoin as low as $16,242 on Thursday. The $3,608 price gain over the past week shows just how volatile cryptocurrency can often be. 

“Bitcoin investors sitting on the sidelines of this recent rally got a Thanksgiving holiday gift as bitcoin saw a drop from $19,500 to $16,300,” noted Jason Lau, COO of San Francisco-based OKCoin. “Derivative liquidations led the move down as some derivatives exchanges lost over 20% of open interest,” he added.

Related: 5 Reasons Why Bitcoin Just Hit an All-Time High Price

Indeed, liquidations on derivatives exchange BitMEX, while not as significant of a venue as it once was, clearly had some impact on Thursday’s drop ($10 million in sell liquidations in an hour) and Monday’s rise ($4 million in by liquidations within an hour). A liquidation on BitMEX is akin to a margin call whereby a long is sold or a short triggers a buy to close out a position if it moves enough to wipe out the margin. 

Bitcoin’s recent rise was not solely due to retail investors. Rich Rosenblum, who heads trading at crypto firm GSR, noted how much more infrastructure is in place for institutions to invest compared to bitcoin’s last bull run in 2017. 

“The trading, settlement and custody services are all far more sophisticated and mature, which instills confidence,” he said. “The [Federal Reserve] continues to fan the flames with its monetary strategy, which looks to remain in place in the year to come. With so much excess liquidity in the system, the original investment case for bitcoin is being vindicated.” 

Ether traders paying for bullish bets

The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, ether (ETH), was up Monday trading around $605 and climbing 8.5% in 24 hours as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET).

Read More: ‘Basis Cash’ Launch Brings Defunct Stablecoin Into the DeFi Era

The ether options put/call ratio on Deribit, the largest derivatives exchange in the crypto ecosystem, has been skewing heavily towards calls over the past month. The put/call ratio shows the number of puts, which are options bets to price downside, versus calls, which are options bets to price upside.

“During the past month, when looking at the put/call ratio in terms of premium traded, we can see an abnormally high ratio of calls trading to puts,” noted Greg Magadini, chief executive officer of Genesis Volatility. 

The bullish activity is so strong traders are doling out high premiums to make bullish bets on ether, noted Magadini. “Traders were quick to start paying higher prices for calls,” he told CoinDesk. “So much so that … puts are 25 implied volatility points cheaper. This level of differential is rare and quite extreme.”

The all-time high of ether is $1,432, according to CoinDesk 20 data. 

Other markets

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

• bitcoin cash (BCH) + 10.1%
• litecoin (LTC) + 8%
• xrp (XRP) + 7.8%

Read More: Canaan Reports $12M Q3 Loss, Says There’s ‘Rebounding Demand’

Equities:

• Asia’s Nikkei 225 ended the day in the red 0.79% despite a 28% gain for Tokyo Dome Corp. after news Friday of its $1.2 billion acquisition by Mitsui Fudosan Co.
• The FTSE 100 in Europe closed down 1.6% as Brexit talks between the U.K. and European Union enter a critical stage with a “no-deal” clause looming in just weeks.
• In the United States the S&P fell 0.60% as traders executed end-of-month sell strategies after a particularly strong November performance.

Commodities:

• Oil was down 0.80%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $45.20.
• Gold was in the red 0.62% and at $1,776 as of press time.

Treasurys:

• The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield climbed Monday, jumping to 0.846 and in the green 0.77%.

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Shareholders of publicly traded bitcoin mining companies enjoyed record monthly gains as the leading cryptocurrency reached a new all-time high Monday morning.

Castle Rock, Colo.-based mining firm Riot Blockchain (RIOT) ended November with a 160% gain trading at $8.45 per share. Las Vegas-based Marathon Patent Group (NARA) also soared over 190% in November, the firm’s largest monthly percentage gain, up over 600% year to date. 

Miner manufacturer Canaan (CAN) ended November with a record monthly gain of nearly 140%, with its American depositary receipts trading at $4.99 by Monday close.

Related: Canaan Reports $12M Q3 Loss, Says There’s ‘Rebounding Demand’ for Mining Machines

Riot’s gains come amid its accumulation of thousands of the industry’s leading mining machines, according to Thomas Heller, chief operating officer at mining software company HASHR8. 

“Riot expects to have a total of 22,640 miners deployed by June 2021, and the majority of them are S19 Pro miners,” Heller said. “Along with the M30S++, the S19 Pro is the most powerful and efficient miner on the market, and commands the highest market price.” 

Riot also nearly tripled the dollar value of bitcoin holdings, per the company’s Q3 earnings, reaching $9 million, up from $3.1 million during the same period in 2019. Marathon also reported a triple-digit percentage increase in its bitcoin holdings after a record-setting quarter of mining revenue in Q3.

Canaan’s gains come as a relief to shareholders who suffered a 85% drawdown at the end of Q3 from its initial list price in November 2019. To date in Q4, Canaan shares are still down 18 percent. 

Related: Long in China’s Shadow, the US Is Becoming a Bitcoin Mining Power Again

Strong demand for new machines by miners holds promise for Canaan, which reported a $12 million Q3 loss Monday. Heller told CoinDesk, “Current orders with Canaan won’t ship until April due to the high demand for ASIC miners.”

Shares of other public mining companies also saw triple-digit percentage gains in November. For example, Vancouver-based Hive Blockchain (HVBTF) gained more than 160% in the month with over-the-counter shares trading hands at $1.23 by market close Monday. 

“Mining stocks are a very attractive way for investors to get upside exposure to [the] bitcoin price while being limited on the downside due to the infrastructure nature of the business,” said Ethan Vera, co-founder of mining company Luxor Technologies, in a direct message with CoinDesk.

“The best mining companies can deliver profits in bear markets and have outsized returns in bull runs,” Vera said.

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While some near-term pricing correction is likely to be expected, analysts who spoke to CoinDesk said bitcoin’s latest rally will be more sustainable for the long term compared with 2017, the last time bitcoin’s price hit an all-time high.

One difference from the last bull run? The current market has gained support from a new wave of institutional investors mainly based in North America.

“You could look at the timing of the rally, which coincided with typical U.S. market open hours,” said John Todaro, director of institutional research at cryptocurrency analysis firm TradeBlock. He added that volumes at LMAX Digital, which primarily caters to institutional traders, are also higher.

Related: Market Wrap: Bitcoin All-Time High Tops Out at $19,850 as Ether Options Market Goes Mega-Bullish

Bitcoin’s price broke its previous all-time high earlier Monday, according to CoinDesk’s BPI, setting a new record at $19,850.11.

Read more: Bitcoin Trading Fees on PayPal, Robinhood, Cash App and Coinbase: What to Know

“During the thinly traded Thanksgiving holiday, regulation concerns, which were outlined by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong in a series of tweets, caused the asset to correct, declining to around $16,500 – during a time when a large number of U.S. institutional investors and traders were not actively transacting,” Todaro said. “Today, Monday morning, you had a large return of institutional traders who bid up the asset, buying the dip.”

To be sure, not all the data for the world’s oldest cryptocurrency is bullish for the near term. Bitcoin’s inflow to exchanges has exceeded outflows since the Thanksgiving sell-off, according to data provider CryptoQuant.

Related: 5 Reasons Why Bitcoin Just Hit an All-Time High Price

That on-chain metric could indicate a short-term bearish trend, sending bitcoin back to a level of around $16,000, said Ki Yong Ju, chief executive officer of CryptoQuant. That’s because it means large bitcoin buyers, or whales, seem to be active on exchanges, adding more selling pressure.

Nonetheless, the activity is another sign this market isn’t what it was three years ago. After hitting its former record in December 2017, bitcoin’s price quickly dropped to as low as $5,947.40 in just about two months. At the time, the market widely attributed bitcoin’s rally to an increase in active retail investors.

Who’s buying

Until very recently, the term “institutional investors” in the crypto world  meant an assortment of crypto quant firms, bitcoin miners and early investors. The composition of market participants has gradually changed this year to include a new group considered institutional investors by the traditional financial world, according to Denis Vinokourov, head of research at digital asset prime broker Bequant.

Ongoing capital inflows into the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust and other exchange-traded products (ETPs) issuers, including 21Shares and CoinShares, are evidence the institutions in traditional financial markets are pouring money into bitcoin, Vinokourov said.

Read morre: Investment Giant AllianceBernstein Now Says Bitcoin Has Role in Investors’ Portfolios 

Grayscale is owned by Digital Currency Group, which is also the parent company of CoinDesk.

“The long-only aspect has partly caused the surge higher and, in turn, attracted the momentum-driven investing that tends to push bullish rallies even higher,” Vinokourov said.

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