| Bitcoin | $32,527 | 7 day: +22.3% | | Ethereum | $1,073 | 7 day: +49% | | All crypto | $886B | 7 day: +24% | | Bitcoin dominance | 68% | 7 day: -1.2% | Prices as of 12:45 p.m. EST
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 The Block Crypto Summarizes 2020 The Block Crypto provided a detailed account of major developments in the cryptocurrency industry last year. Not one to miss, below is a brief summary of their 5,000-word recap. Bitcoin's journey to an all-time-high: - Obviously, the headline driving awareness of the cryptocurrency industry in 2020 was bitcoin's price, which quadrupled from approximately $7,200 on Jan. 1 to $29,200 on Dec. 31.
- Bitcoin achieved record highs despite March 2020's market crash that threatened to derail momentum. Bitcoin price plummeted by thousands of dollars on March 12, now known as "Black Thursday."
- Kaiko, a digital assets data provider, named COVID-19 the "exogenous" cause behind that crash. According to Forbes, on March 12, bitcoin traded from $7,969 to $3,596.
- Nevertheless, bitcoin recovered, and it now trades over $23B in daily volume.
Today's multi-part story continues below... The Block Crypto 
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Stablecoins grew in 2020: - USD stablecoin issuers say that their tokens are redeemable for USD on a 1:1 basis. There are now over $30B worth of stablecoins outstanding.
- Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) remain significant contributors to the stablecoin industry's growth.
- On Dec. 9, Jeremy Allaire's Circle announced that USDC's circulation grew 600% during 2020.
- In 2020, the circulating supply of all stablecoins quintupled from $6B to roughly $30B.
- Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey admitted the usefulness of stablecoins in a Sept. 3 speech.
- Adjusted on-chain stablecoin volume suggests that during 2020, $1T worth of stablecoin transactions occurred, an increase of 316% versus 2019.
- In 2020, the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency allowed national banks to act as regulated cryptocurrency custodians.
Today's multi-part story continues below... The Block Crypto
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 Uniswap DeFi boom: - Decentralized finance (DeFi) projects gained attention through outrageous yields, sometimes promising triple- and even quadruple-digit annualized interest rates.
- Anyone with an internet connection could enter the DeFi craze and start lending, trading, investing, and borrowing from decentralized exchanges (DEXs).
- In 2020, DeFi projects like Compound (COMP), UMA (UMA), and Balancer (BAL) attracted more than $1B in total value locked (TVL) via the Ethereum network.
- The current TVL of the DeFi industry exceeds $18B today.
- DeFi projects have been in development for several years, but during 2020, the industry grew more than $10B.
- Yield farming accelerated the DeFi craze, as projects like UniSwap (UNI) minted tokens to incentivize liquidity providers.
- According to a DeFi ranking and analytics hub, DeFiPulse, the USD value of ether (ETH) locked in various DeFi protocols jumped from $686M in Jan. 2020 to $14B by Sept. 2020.
- In 2020, DEXs processed $104B worth of transactions, according to Dune analytics, with UniSwap emerging as the leading market. The current TVL for UniSwap represents 41% of DEXs' total TVL.
- Curve DEX, another popular stablecoin-to-stablecoin exchange, launched on Jan. 3, 2020. Aave protocol launched, which started as ETHLend, and soon rolled out of Version 2 of its protocol.
- Nexus Mutual, a DeFi insurance provider, paid its first claim.
Today's multi-part story continues below...
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 Ethereum 2.0: - In 2020, Ethereum completed "Phase 0" of its Ethereum 2 (ETH2) after years of planning.
- The development brings more efficiency and scalability to Ethereum's network.
- Ethereum (ETH) developers finished multiple audits and testnets before their so-called Beacon Chain launch, an inner layer acting as a foundation for ETH2.
- So far, Ethereum (ETH) holders have staked roughly $2B worth of ether in ETH2 contracts.
- Ethereum will also tear a page out of DeFi's playbook, with ETH2 Phase 1.5 including "staking rewards."
Today's multi-part story continues below...
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 Jack Dorsey Retailers and payment apps add bitcoin: - Jack Dorsey used his $100B merchant services company Square (NYSE:SQ) to boost bitcoin adoption, with Cash App adding support for myriad bitcoin-denominated merchant transactions during 2020.
- Dorsey's company reported $3M in gross profit from bitcoin transactions in Q4 2019. In Q3 2020, Square increased that to $32M in gross profit. Square's Cash App also posted a record increase in bitcoin active users.
- PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) also announced crypto capabilities in cooperation with Venmo, arriving in H1 2021, including the option to pay over 26 million merchants with crypto.
- PayPal joined a roster of well-known fintech apps supporting bitcoin: Robinhood, eToro, Revolut, and SoFi. Mogo (MOGO.TO), a $114M Canadian loan company, also joined the list and reported a 135% increase in bitcoin volume on its platform from Nov. to Dec. 2020.
- Forbes reported that Visa (NYSE:V) applied for a blockchain patent to develop a "Digital Dollar." Visa's CEO also mentioned that in his view, fiat-backed cryptocurrency qualifies as a new type of payment technology.
Today's multi-part story continues below...
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 Enterprise bitcoin investments: - Crypto M&A activity reached another all-time high in 2020.
- According to a report published in July 2020, VC funding of crypto companies crested $3B by mid-year.
- Hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones indicated that his Tudor BVI fund (TUDBVIG) would start trading bitcoin.
- Many established wealth managers upgraded their view toward bitcoin this year: Stanley Druckenmiller, Ray Dalio, Raoul Pal, and Larry Fink.
- Billionaire investor Druckenmiller accurately forecasted that bitcoin would perform better than gold.
- Three public companies — MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR), Galaxy Digital (GLXY.TO), and Square (NYSE:SQ) — collectively hold more than 90,000 bitcoin on their balance sheets.
- MassMutual bought $100M of bitcoin last year. Elon Musk spoke about the possibility of buying bitcoin with cash from Tesla, as well.
The Block Crypto
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- Anthony Scaramucci's SkyBridge Capital launched a new "Bitcoin Fund LP," increasing the company's bitcoin exposure to about $310M as of Jan. 4.
- Jeremy Allaire, CEO of digital currency company Circle, commended the latest decision taken by the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency office which allows national banks to connect to blockchains and transact stablecoins on behalf of customers.
- Jack Dorsey's Square (NYSE:SQ) published a letter criticizing the U.S. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's (FinCEN) proposed rule to require companies like Square to manage KYC records and details involving crypto transactions. Dorsey also scrutinized the proposal on Twitter.
- Ebang International Holdings (NASDAQ:EBON), a company that produces bitcoin mining machines, plans to launch a crypto exchange in Q1 2021.
- Wayne Trench, CEO of OS Limited, an Asian digital asset company, said during an interview with Bloomberg on Jan. 4 that institutional capital allocation is driving bitcoin's rally.
- Singapore-based hedge fund Three Arrows Capital purchased approximately 38,888,888 shares issued by Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), worth $1.3B, according to an SEC filing dated Dec. 31, 2020.
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 |  | Curated by Associated Press fanboy, eye-strained news terminal watcher, and bitcoin follower since $1, Aaron Wise. Temporarily listening to news squawk boxes in Florida while awaiting the construction of cryptopia. |  | | Editor | Charlotte Hayes-Clemens is an editor and writer based in Vancouver. She has dabbled in both the fiction and non-fiction world, having worked at HarperCollins Publishers and more recently as a writing coach for new and self-published authors. Proper semi-colon usage is her hill to die on. | |
