| Bitcoin | $18,012 | 7 day: -5.2% | | Ethereum | $547 | 7 day: -7.2% | | All crypto | $530B | 7 day: -5.6% | | Bitcoin dominance | 62.8% | 7 day: +0.3% | Prices as of 3:30 p.m. EST
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MassMutual, the 169-year-old insurance company, has purchased bitcoin worth $100M for its general investment fund, an approximate 0.5% allocation. - The Massachusetts-based mutual life insurance company has joined MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) and other companies by investing in bitcoin.
- In addition to the investment, which is 0.04% of its general investment account, the mutual insurer also took a minority stake worth $5M in the Stone Ridge-owned crypto services provider, NYDIG.
- MassMutual's spokesperson told Bloomberg that the $100M investment represents only the first step taken in the direction of bitcoin investment, as the company considers exploring other opportunities ahead.
Bloomberg 
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A New York Attorney General court filing has signaled cooperation from the Bitfinex team with the ongoing inquiry into Tether's (USDT) bitcoin market manipulation. - NYAG Letitia James filed a letter to Judge Cohen of the Supreme Court of New York County on Dec. 9, regarding the ongoing inquiry into Bitifinex, the stablecoin issuer and crypto exchange.
- The exchange and its related stablecoin issuer, Tether, face allegations of a cover-up worth over $850M. It has been under a probe by NYAG since April 2019.
- The attorney general's letter suggests that the loan documents related to Bitfinex's alleged fraud will finished within weeks, but after the expected deadline mediated by the court.
- As before, the NYAG still seeks an injunction extension, restricting Tether (USDT) from loaning any funds to Bitfinex until Jan. 15, 2020.
Coindesk
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Crypto payment processor BitPay applied to the Office of the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to become a bank. The filing is for $12M for 120M shares according to a public notice dated Dec. 9. - The Atlanta-based processor is seeking to organize and operate as a bank named BitPay National Trust Bank.
- BitPay, which is looking to expands its business after eight years of acting as a crypto payment processor, confirmed its intention to work in compliance with all appropriate regulatory guidelines.
- Its application also addresses some concerns regarding the recently announced Stable Act, which requires regulatory approvals for stablecoin issuers.
- The blockchain payment processor recorded $1B revenue in 2018 and expects to skip state-by-state licensing regimes in the event of approval, streamlining its operations with the U.S.
Trustnodes
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DBS Group will establish a cryptocurrency exchange with tokenized assets and custodial services for institutional clients. - The holding company of Singaporean multinational DBS Bank, DBS Group (D05.SI) will launch a crypto exchange digital platform with a 10% share in the exchange. It will do so in collaboration with the Singapore Exchange Ltd. (S68.SI), according to Bloomberg.
- The exchange is for qualified investors, including DBS Vickers securities unit customers and DBS Bank clientele. The fiat onramp will list bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), bitcoin cash (BCH), and Ripple (XRP) denominated in Singapore, U.S., and Hong Kong dollars.
- The platform received in-principle approval from the Singaporean central bank - the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) - for the exchange platform to trade bonds, shares, and private equity funds.
- Piyush Gupta, CEO of DBS, which garnered a net income of $6.8B in 2019, encouraged formal partnerships between banks and the crypto industry, hinting that trading on the exchange could begin as early as next week.
Bloomberg
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State Street and S&P Global will participate in a fundraising round for Lukka, a global crypto index company. Lukka is already working on a global crypto index alongside Standard & Poor's (of S&P 500 fame). - Boston-based financial services company State Street Corp. (NYSE:STT) joined the rating agency and indexation giant S&P Global Inc. (NYSE:SPGI) in a funding round for a crypto index made by Lukka Inc., a U.S. crypto software and data company.
- Lukka raised $15M to develop the crypto index project and is currently working with S&P and Dow Jones on crypto indices and benchmarking solutions, as reported by Bloomberg.
- CPA.com, AICPA's business & technology subsidiary, also participated in Lukka's recent Series C round.
Bloomberg
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J.P. Morgan (NYSE:JPM) analysts say bitcoin investment adoption is rising at the expense of gold. - Quantitative strategist Nikolas Panigirtzoglou at the investment banking giant JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) expressed concern over a predicted transition from gold to crypto markets, according to a Bloomberg report.
- The rise in mainstream popularity of digital currencies like bitcoin as an investment asset poses a problem for metal market investors in the future.
- For example, during Q3 2020, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), famously attracted billions in inflows versus the modest outflows in the much larger gold market.
Bloomberg
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- Circle (USDC) CEO Jeremy Allaire appeared on CNBC Squawk Box on Dec. 7 to discuss and share his positive outlook on the future of crypto regulation and stablecoin issuance during the upcoming Biden administration.
- Forbes reporter Michael del Castillo shared in a tweet that Chinese companies secure approximately four of every six patents issued by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office related to financial innovations.
- American whistleblower Edward Snowden shared his views on the U.S. dollar declining "99.93%" in value since 2013 when compared to bitcoin, in a tweet dated Dec. 7. (The same conflation could be made with little value for any other asset, including options contracts or derivatives or artwork, that have increased in value at an even greater rate than bitcoin.)
- JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) trialed intraday repurchase transactions on the Onyx blockchain platform between its investment banking units and a broker-dealer, digitizing U.S. Treasury bonds for JPM Coin. Using Bank of New York Mellon Corp. as a triparty agent, JPMorgan also executed live trades with Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), which expects to join the platform in January 2021.
- Bittrex's non-U.S. exchange plans to list tokenized stocks on its platform, allowing access to the corporate equity of Alibaba (9988.HK), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN).
- Bloomberg briefly profiled Binance CEO Zhao Changpeng in its Businessweek edition on Dec. 3, suggesting that the crypto exchange expects about $800M to $1B in profit by the end of the year.
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 |  | 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 | Alexander Huls is a Toronto-based journalist. He has contributed articles about true crime and pop culture to The New York Times, Men's Health, Popular Mechanics, and other fine publications. Follow him on Twitter @alxhuls. | |
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