Blockchain Bites: Record-breaking “ active ” Bitcoin users as Wall Street ponders mass adoption

Hi everyone, I thought I’d try something different in today’s edition of Blockchain Bites. Yesterday and today we saw a flurry of news that seemed disparate and disconnected, but could actually tell a bigger story about changing institutional attitudes towards bitcoin and cryptocurrency, in general.

Executives at PayPal and BlackRock both said digital assets could play a much more important role in the global financial system. Meanwhile, NYDIG continues to build cryptocurrency-focused investment funds aimed at people with high net worth.

True to the roots of cryptocurrencies, adoption will not be driven only by the billionaire class. Recently, a crowdfunding initiative for a simple crypto app became the most subscribed increase on a UK funding platform. Furthermore, there are now more “active entities” on Bitcoin than ever.

Despite the positive news for the wave of adoption, there are still risks in a growing and relatively young industry. Microsoft has felt that cryptojacking is a credible risk to nation-states, and at least some are concerned about what a potential Bitcoin network upgrade could mean for user privacy.

“Global asset class”
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, who heads the world’s largest asset manager with $ 7.4 trillion in assets under management (AUM), said crypto could “evolve” into a global market asset. Speaking with former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney at the Council on Foreign Relations on Tuesday, Fink also said that despite its small market cap, bitcoin has “captured [people’s] beware, “CNBC reported. He added that digital assets are having a real impact on the US dollar, making it less relevant on a global scale to international holders of dollar-based assets.” Does the need for the dollar as a reserve currency change? ” Fink asked.

Schulman says
PayPal CEO and President Dan Schulman said “the time is now” for cryptocurrencies. In front of around 100,000 attendees at the Web Summit, Schulman predicted that digital currencies are heading towards the mainstream, even becoming a daily payment technology. The coronavirus pandemic “has continued these trends for three to five years [and] five to six months, “he said. PayPal only recently opened the door to cryptography on its massive e-commerce platform, although Schulman said there are already 360 million digital wallets. Separately, Mizuho Securities interviewed PayPal users and found that around 65% would use bitcoin as their currency at PayPal’s 28 million merchants.

Deep pockets
The New York Digital Investments Group (NYDIG) has raised $ 150 million for two new funds to invest in cryptocurrencies, aimed at investors who want to go long on bitcoin. According to two US Securities and Exchange Commission documents, NYDIG Digital Assets Fund I, an exclusive bitcoin fund, raised $ 50 million from institutional investors while NYDIG Digital Assets Fund II raised $ 100 million. Only two anonymous investors appear to have participated in NYDIG’s $ 50 million bitcoin fund, while it appears his older brother got all of his money from just one – potentially significant the impact that high net worth individuals and companies can have on the bitcoin market.

USDC card
Visa will support the issuance of a USDC stablecoin credit card, which could become operational in 2021. According to a report on Wednesday, Visa is adding support for the digital currency developed by Circle Internet Financial. This means that approximately 60 million merchants can start integrating USDC software into their platforms to send and receive USDC payments. While Visa itself does not hold any USDCs, Circle will work with Visa to help set up select Visa credit card issuers. Eventually, the Visa network will support a credit card that allows businesses to send and receive USDC.

Cryptographic Commitments
Hong Kong-based Crypto.com secured an Australian financial service license through the acquisition of a company called The Card Group Pty Ltd. No details of the acquisition were provided, although with a functioning regulatory agreement Crypto.com plan to launch a debit card in Australia. “We are committed to accelerating the world’s transition to cryptocurrency. Working within the regulatory frameworks of the markets in which we operate is a key pillar in achieving our mission,” said Kris Marszalek, CEO of Crypto.com.

Crypto crowdfund
Ziglu, a UK-based app that allows users to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies, raised $ 14.8 million from around 1,250 investors in a crowdfunding campaign, the largest capital increase on the Seedrs quest platform. ‘year. Ziglu had aimed to raise a modest £ 1 million ($ 1.34 million) but achieved this within three hours of the campaign opening, eventually closing five times over. The average investment amount was $ 6,445, said Yang Li, Ziglu’s Chief Growth Officer. “I am amazed only by the welcome and support we have received from the community for our crowdfunding campaign,” Li said. Ziglu is one of many easy-to-use platforms, such as PayPal, which allows users to gain exposure to crypto while restricting its use.

Use of Bitcoin
Bitcoin usage is at an all-time high. The cryptocurrency now has 432,451 “active entities” or portfolio clusters controlled by a single participant used within a 24-hour period, according to analyst firm Glassnode. The previous peak of 410,972 was recorded on December 9, 2017. Matthew Dibb, co-founder of Stack, said the increase in usage has slowly accumulated since the Bitcoin network halving event last spring, rather than just after the rise in bitcoin prices. “While the metric has surpassed highs it hasn’t seen since 2017, it has done so gradually without” bubble “growth, Dibb said.” We take comfort when we correlate address clusters with forward-looking price action. . “Bitcoin printed a record of $ 19,920.53 on Tuesday before turning back.

Afraid of privacy?
Bitcoin experts say privacy concerns over an upcoming network update called Taproot are exaggerated. In a recently circulated presentation, Blockchair lead developer Nikita Zhavoronkov argues that Taproot introduces a new “script” for Bitcoin, a way to program how coins can be spent, thus adding another way to identify users and make Taproot coins. clearly identifiable from other bitcoins. “What Nikita describes is not a problem,” said 6102, a pseudonymous bitcoin educator and privacy guru, as there are already many, many scripts – one more addition won’t matter. Taproot, which has been in the works for some time, aims to increase Bitcoin’s scalability and could indeed improve its privacy.

Monero lure
Microsoft warns that cryptojacking is providing nation-state hackers with a lure for more malicious attacks. According to a new report, the company’s intelligence team said a group called BISMUTH hit government targets in France and Vietnam with relatively large monero mining trojans this summer. Mining the cryptocurrency generated secondary money for the group, but it also distracted the victims from the real BISMUTH campaign: credential theft.

XRP rips
XRP closed in November up 169%, becoming the best-performing digital asset, according to CoinDesk 20. The asset, best known for its use in Ripple’s payments ecosystem, has now increased 225% in 2020 compared to bitcoin’s 165% gain. XRP has a market cap of $ 21.4 billion, a fraction of bitcoin’s roughly $ 350 billion. “Ripple appears to offer visibility into [its] wallet and a quick Google search may lead some users to believe that XRP is cheap and likely to become a product used by banks for cross-border settlement, ”said Brian Mosoff, CEO of the publicly traded Canadian investment fund Ether Capital.