Week in review: Bitcoin breaches $41,000, another Ripple lawsuit filed, and other developments

Bitcoin price hit a new all-time high above $41,000, a Ripple investor filed a lawsuit against the company, Dfinity quietly launched its mainnet, and Morgan Stanley acquired 10.9% of the software company MicroStrategy. This and more in ForkLog’s traditional Sunday digest.

Timeline of the rise

• January 2 — above $31,000;
• January 3 — above $33,000;
• January 6 — above $35,000;
• January 7 — $38,000, $39,000 and $40,000;
• January 8 — above $41,000.

The total market capitalisation of cryptocurrencies exceeded $1.1 trillion. Bitcoin dominance was 67.5%. Ethereum’s dominance stood at 13.6%.

The second-largest cryptocurrency rose above $1300, approaching its all-time high of $1420.

Forecasts

• Binance.US CEO predicted Bitcoin would reach $100,000 by year-end.
• JPMorgan predicted Bitcoin at $146,000.
• Renowned investor Bill Miller said that Bitcoin still has room to grow.

Another lawsuit filed against Ripple

Tetragon Financial Group filed a lawsuit against Ripple. In 2019 it led a $200 million Series C financing round when XRP was valued at $10 billion.

Tetragon seeks to force Ripple to redeem preferred shares under the contract.

Ripple says that Tetragon is attempting to opportunistically exploit regulatory uncertainty in the United States. According to the company, the contract provides for redemption only if XRP is deemed a security.

This week, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse answered questions regarding the litigation with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He pledged to fight and emphasised that the company has shareholder support.

Meanwhile, the investment platform eToro paused XRP trading for US residents. Grayscale Investments removed XRP from the Digital Large Cap Fund trust, selling all the coins.

Following suit, the blockchain.com exchange also paused XRP trading but kept the ability to store and conduct transactions.

UPDATE: We have changed the XRP trading halt to today, Thursday, January 7th at 11:59pm GMT. Customers will continue to have access to their XRP to hold and send.

— Blockchain.com (@blockchain) January 7, 2021

A wave of negative news had prevented XRP price from following the rest of the market for a while, but a rally began.

Stellar rose amid Ukraine news

Stellar (XLM) led weekly gains. One reason was news that the Ukrainian government selected the platform for developing a central bank digital currency in Western media.

Journalists misinterpreted a press release from Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation, which stated that a memorandum of understanding with the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) had been signed.

The document outlines the details of the partnership as:

• cooperation in developing the market for virtual assets in Ukraine;
• support for projects related to virtual assets;
• implementation and regulation of virtual asset circulation in Ukraine;
• assistance in the development of Ukraine’s central bank digital currency.

According to ForkLog deputy minister Oleksandr Borniakov, the last item envisages borrowing SDF’s expertise for expert consultations in working groups on CBDC development. The latter is within the exclusive remit of the central bank.

Further explanations from the Ministry of Digital Transformation did not hinder the asset from continuing to rise.

The mainnet launch of the Dfinity “Internet Computer”

Last month, the blockchain project Dfinity carried out the ‘decisive initial decentralisation phase for the Internet Computer’, launching the mainnet quietly.

Dfinity quietly launched the mainnet of the ‘Internet Computer’

The mainnet launch of a Lightning Network-based payments app

The Zap startup launched the cross-border payments app Strike built on the Lightning Network. The company plans to expand to 200 countries in partnership with the Bittrex exchange.

Strike enables near-instant transfers anywhere in the world with conversion to local currencies. Invoices on the Lightning Network can be paid with card payments.

The founder of Zap, Jack Mallers, described how a possible transfer of $1,000 from Chicago to Berlin might work as follows:

• The sender initiates a payment and Strike debits $1,000 from their balance;
• The service automatically converts the funds into bitcoins, ready for use in its infrastructure;
• The amount in bitcoins is transferred in less than a second to a European Strike recipient via LN;
• Then the service converts the cryptocurrency to euros, credited to the recipient’s account.

US regulator allows banks to issue stablecoins

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) within the US Treasury has allowed national banks and federal savings associations to use public blockchains and stablecoins for customer settlements.

The OCC allows banks to run nodes on public blockchains, validate, record and settle transfers that comply with the law, and issue their own stablecoins.

Meanwhile, FinCEN’s proposed rules under the US Treasury to identify participants in crypto transactions drew widespread criticism — with Jack Dorsey, Katie Haun, Coinbase and Fidelity Digital Assets among the critics.

What about institutions?

• SkyBridge Capital and Anthony Scaramucci launched a Bitcoin fund with $310 million in assets.
• Media reports said that Bakkt would go public via a $2 billion reverse merger.
• Morgan Stanley acquired 11% of MicroStrategy’s shares. The latter owns 70,470 BTC.

Bitcoin mining difficulty hits new high

Bitcoin mining difficulty rose to 20.61 T after the recalculation . According to blockchain.com, the hash rate stood at 149.5 EH/s at the time of writing.

Canaan shows immersion-cooled miner

Canaan Creative unveiled the Avalon A1066I — an ASIC miner with immersion cooling.

The device’s hash rate is 50 TH/s, power consumption 3,400 W.

What else is interesting?

On 3 January the Bitcoin network’s birthday was celebrated. Twelve years ago Satoshi Nakamoto generated the genesis block, the header of which carried The Times’ headline, “Chancellor on brink of the second bailout for banks”.

Special project: Oil, Gas and Bitcoins

ForkLog and Gazprom Neft launched a special project on mining with associated gas.

Environmentalists and miners have already commented on the initiative.

ForkLog annual report

We describe 2020 in numbers — Bitcoin records, DeFi boom and institutional adoption.

2020 in numbers: Bitcoin records, DeFi boom and institutional adoption

What to read this weekend?

• We collected ForkLog’s most popular materials of 2020. You voted for them by views.
• We presented the winners of the ‘Person of the Year 2020’ award. You voted for nominees throughout December.
• We spoke with experts about what 2021 will bring — .

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