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In continuum with what we were experiencing in October, the month of November gave us more reason to keep riding the bitcoin wave as it hurdles the $19,000 mark hitting close to ATHs. The global macro environment was something that also could’ve been a major tailwind as we saw the US presidential race wrap up with a presumably crypto friendly Biden cabinet, but this is something to keep an eye out for. Because eventually the more and more we see government becoming more knowledgeable about crypto, the more and more they will have their hands on it. This is counter indicative to what crypto is all about. But all in all, November was a great month for both Bitcoin and Ethereum. Who still says they can’t co-exist? And as we close off the 4th quarter of 2020, let’s hope that we continue to see bitcoin stay in the positive considering that the last two 4th quarters of 2018 and 2019 were all in the red.

Here are the top headlines of the month of November

Ethereum 2.0 will be launched as scheduled on December 1

The Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract has hit a target number of 524,288 of ETH, which was reverberated throughout CT, staked to successfully transition the smart contract protocol from a Proof of Work protocol to a Proof of Stake protocol. The waiting of the arrival of Ethereum 2.0 has been in conversation throughout the industry for the past few years with the need for an upgrade accentuates by the rapid rise of DeFi activity on the smart contract protocol. With a definite launch date of Dec. 1 now slated to come on the horizon, ethereans are also expecting a big bump in price.

https://www.panewslab.com/zh/articledetails/1606184907783427.html

The Star is back and OK...

Star Xu, the founder of OKEx, responded to the recent turmoil by stating an acquired company part of an M&A deal a few years ago was involved in a complicated judicial case which required his recent cooperation. According to Star and OKEx, this situation was the reason for the arrest and confiscation of the private keys. But regardless of what happened, OKEx users should be relieved that the withdrawal function has been reinstated albeit with a slight exodus of crypto being taken off the exchange.

https://www.panewslab.com/zh/articledetails/1605832918172904.html

Bitcoin hitting over $19,000

At the end of the day, what matters in this market always falls on the shoulders of big daddy bitcoin. After a tumultuous drop in March due to the global pandemic and stock market rout, bitcoin has managed in roaring back to levels not seen since late 2017 spiking up jubilation of the next bull run. Since that crash back in March which saw price levels drop close to $3,000, bitcoin is now trading near $17,000 inching closer and closer to all time highs of near $20,000. It’s easy to lose hope in this nascent industry but this year had provide a plethora of reasons to make the case for “why bitcoin”. With prices jolting back up again, it will become a lot easier to have these discussions around the Thanksgiving dinner table.

https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-breaks-19k

We’re forking again

After two years, BCH once again staged a hard fork war. It's just that this time the fork is due to the conflicts within the community triggered by the IFP (Infrastructure Financing Program). With the fork coming again, a new round of "BCH" naming rights has begun again. Although in the previous battle for computing power, the true successor of BCH fell into the hands of Bitcoin ABC, from the current point of view, BCHN, which has the advantage of public opinion and approval rate, has a relatively high probability of obtaining naming rights. Indeed, every time BCH encounters a crisis, BCH chooses to use a fork to solve the problem, but is this method really long-lasting? Take the second hard fork upgrade as an example. If BCHN wins this victory, although certain contradictions have been resolved in a short period of time, it still cannot really solve the problem of the shortage of funds for the development team. Can it be guaranteed that there will be no future forks in the future?

https://www.panewslab.com/zh/articledetails/1605668953697649.html

Unicorns in crypto?

Chainalysis confirmed exclusively to Forbes it expects to raise $100 million venture capital at a $1 billion valuation as soon as next week. Led by Tiger Global alum Lee Fixel’s newly founded venture capital firm, Addition, the Series C round is expected to be joined by previous investors Accel, Benchmark, and Ribbit. This would make Chainalysis the first crypto company to have a unicorn valuation.  A unicorn is a term in business world to indicate a privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeldelcastillo/2020/11/20/bitcoin-investigation-giant-to-raise-100-million-at-1-billion-valuation/?sh=3975bc593093

Grayscale scaling up its bitcoin assets

Grayscale this month bought another 15,114 Bitcoin ($241 million), bringing the total number of Bitcoin the company owns to 506,000, or $8.1 billion. The company now manages a total of $10 billion worth of cryptocurrency. Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), which was created in 2013, is the company’s biggest trust. The total value of assets managed by Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) now exceeds $8.2 billion. GBTC holds 481,711 Bitcoin, which corresponds to 62% of the 814,359 Bitcoins in the ownership of publicly-traded companies.

https://decrypt.co/48277/grayscale-buys-240m-in-bitcoin-in-largest-capital-raise-week-ever