Bitcoin | $19,259 | 7 day: +6.2% | Ethereum | $603 | 7 day: +3.1% | All crypto | $576b | 7 day: +5.5% | Bitcoin dominance | 62.3% | 7 day: unch | Prices as of 12 p.m. EST | |
BIS Headquarters in Switzerland The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) suggests that "embedded supervision" in stablecoin technologies will benefit central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The "central bank of central banks," Switzerland's BIS is owned by central banks. - The Bank of International Settlements published a paper written by researchers Douglas Arner, Jon Frost, and Raphael Auer, focusing on stablecoins' potential to benefit CBDCs and fiat management.
- The researchers state that fiat stablecoins could help sovereigns properly install new monetary instruments into their economies.
- The paper mentions ways to monitor stablecoin usage via permissioned ledgers, and discusses regulatory implications surrounding stablecoins.
Libra: - The paper discusses proposed global stablecoins with a focus on Libra 2.0 due to its sizeable backers, broad availability, bonding with financial applications, and other features.
- Libra will begin a pilot of Libra 2.0 in January.
- Libra and other widely-adopted stablecoins, including CBDCs, will compete with existing digital payment options: credit cards; bank accounts; and commercial e-wallets like Apple Pay, Alipay, Google Pay, and PayPal.
Bank of International Settlements | |
Jack Abramoff SEC renews its complaint that Jack Abramoff and Rowland Marcus Andrade conducted an unregistered securities offering of AML Bitcoin (ABTC) tokens. Abramoff was sentenced to jail. He was an influential political lobbyist. His company was National AtenCoin Foundation (NAC). - The SEC asked a federal judge to move forward with the lawsuit alleging Abramoff and Andrade misled investors and raised $5.6M for "an enhanced bitcoin version" while it was barely under development.
- On Nov. 19, 2020, the SEC responded to the defendants' motion to dismiss submitted that same day, citing that NAC and Andrade sold ABTC tokens as securities. Hence, the commission claims, the matter falls under SEC jurisdiction.
- The unregistered token sale took place between October 2017 and February 2018.
- According to SEC's complaint, Andrade manipulated the market for ABTC and utilized funds raised for his personal benefit, such as buying a residence in Missouri City, Texas, for $747,000, a Cadillac Escalade worth $69,000, and a property for his father worth $226,150.
- NAC Foundation falsely cited in its ABTC whitepaper that it owned patents.
- The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) also indicted Andrade and Abramoff.
- "ABTC tokens had no use apart from their investment potential," the SEC said in its recent filing.
Law360 | |
Suzhou, China Chinese officials conduct small, promotional events for digital yuans in various cities. The latest scheme in the city of Suzhou features "red envelopes" containing up to 200 yuan ($30) worth of central bank digital currency. Another scheme called "Double 12" will be a national giveaway. - The Suzhou district of Xiangcheng reported on "red envelopes" in a local newspaper.
- During the Suzhou giveaway trial, offline and touch capabilities would be available for participants. For this purpose, businesses are installing Q.R. machines around the district for the event's smooth execution.
- A similar scheme was executed in the city of Shenzhen in October. During that red envelope lottery, the Chinese central bank issued approximately $1.5M worth of digital yuan to 50,000 random participants.
- Next, Chinese authorities plan to distribute digital yuan in a country-wide shopping event called Double 12 on Dec. 12. Alibaba (9988.HK), a Chinese e-commerce technology company, is organizing the Double 12 shopping fest.
- Suzhou is one of the three selected cities for another pilot. Xiong'an New District and Chengdu residents expect the next event.
CoinTelegraph | |
Coinfirm's team discovers millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies linked to the Silk Road. - The U.K-based crypto analytics company published a report, alleging that the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) unknowingly left a considerable amount of cryptocurrencies in some wallets after it seized about $1B from Silk Road's "Individual X" on Nov. 3, 2020. (DoJ has not yet revealed Individual X's identity.)
- We covered details regarding DoJ's seizure of Silk Road assets here.
- Coinfirm's investigation highlights the "Reclaim Fork" of addresses originating from the seized wallet 1HQ3Go3ggs8pFnXuHVHRytPCq5fGG8Hbhx, still holding about 693,701 bitcoin diamond (BCD), 69,370 super bitcoin (SBTC), and 69,370.11 bitcoin private (BTCP). Any individual with the private keys for this wallet can access these funds.
Coinfirm | |
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York continues evaluating whether the Fed should provide a CBDC as a digital alternative to cash with some privacy features. - Fed economists are voicing concerns regarding data privacy in potential CBDC payments.
- Their report suggests that issuing a CBDC could positively impact market structures and consumer welfare.
- The paper explains how various payment options allow payment companies to obtain consumer data through every transaction, and implications for the Fed's mandates.
- In the paper, researchers forecast that most consumers will flock toward the new payment option, increasing market surplus and positioning the CBDC as a bargaining tool in the market, forcing payment companies that act as data monopolists to reduce their service fees.
- Federal Reserve Bank of New York economists Michael Lee and Rod Garratt wrote the paper.
Federal Reserve Bank of New York | |
QUICK HITS: - During this holiday season, find out how SimpliSafe is protecting over 3 million homes with less markup and more security.*
- Raoul Pal, the influential co-founder of the financial video network RealVision, claims to have 79% of his liquid net worth in bitcoin and 19% in Ethereum (ETH).
- Satoshi Nakamoto's second successor, Wladimir van der Laan, shared a new feature about Linux security on GitHub that could help to debug certain bitcoin core computing modes.
- Withdrawals from OKEx have resumed and customers are rushing to recover their billions of dollars that have been frozen for over a month.
- Chinese police claim to have seized $4.2B worth of assets from the PlusToken ponzi scheme.
- American broadcaster and long-time bitcoin supporter Max Keiser endorsed bitcoin again, tweeting that bitcoin's price could reach $1M if institutions buy it directly from miners. Writer's note: That price would value bitcoin at $18T, roughly twice the value of all mined gold.
- Notorious bitcoin critic Peter Schiff tweeted that PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) acting as a third party for customers to buy bitcoin from Paxos eliminates several of bitcoin's advantages over gold. He advises PayPal to support gold, for which no BitLicense is needed.
- PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said during a CNBC Squawk Box interview that allowing cryptocurrencies as a funding source for customer transactions among its 28M merchants will continue supporting bitcoin's utility in 2021.
- Jim Cramer, host of CNBC's Mad Money television show, called bitcoin a "great" alternative to gold in a tweet dated Nov. 24, 2020.
- Coinbase's app is ranked below Cash App, PayPal, Robinhood, and Venmo in Apple's App Store as of Nov. 24, 2020.
- Revtown's changing the denim game by applying the best parts of workout clothes—comfort, flexibility & durability—to jeans.*
*This is a sponsored post. | |
| | Written and curated by wide-eyed bitcoin watcher since $1, Aaron Wise. Streaming headline junkie, Associated Press fanboy, eye-strained news terminal watcher, 2017 founder of Cryptocurrency Newsfeed. Temporarily based in Florida while awaiting the construction of cryptopia. | | Editor | Edited by Eduardo Garcia in New York. Eduardo is writing an illustrated book about climate change that will be published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |