CoinDesk Crypto

MicroStrategy announced Friday it raised $650 million, up from a recently boosted $550 million, in a convertible senior note sale designed to allow the business intelligence company to buy more bitcoin.

The company estimates $634.9 million of that sum – the net proceeds – will be available for bitcoin allocations in accordance with its treasury reserve policy.

The amount of the offering was boosted to $650 million from the $550 million announced on Wednesday after the purchaser of the notes exercised in full an option to buy up to an added $100 million of the convertible senior notes.

This story will be updated.

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• Citi Analyst Chides Saylor’s Bitcoin Focus, Cuts MicroStrategy to ‘Sell’

There are more bitcoin “whales” than ever, and new data shows how they drive market movements. MassMutual is the latest legacy institution to buy into bitcoin. And the number of Ethereum developers is growing at a breathless pace.

Top shelf

Whales and krill
New data from OKEx and Kaiko suggests that bitcoin “whales” – the mega-wealthy crypto investors and, potentially, institutions – were selling at market highs as retail investors bought in. Trading data of the bitcoin/tether pair on OKEx’s platform between August and November showed that during the November bitcoin rally whales took profits and bought the dip, while smaller buyers continued purchasing as they did in September and October, despite higher prices in the oldest cryptocurrency, and panic sold around the Thanksgiving pullback. While the picture is likely more complicated, OKEx’s data shows how small buyers are faced with “swimming with the tide or against it,” by holding positions largely influenced by major buyers and sellers.

Mass buy
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, a $235 billion insurance giant, purchased $100 million worth of bitcoin and invested $5 million in the crypto asset manager NYDIG. MassMutual told the Wall Street Journal it was a seeking “measured yet meaningful” stake in an increasingly digital world by taking on direct exposure to bitcoin. The life insurance company is the latest institutional stalwart to join bitcoin’s march into the financial mainstream, joining other publicly traded corporations and multi-billion dollar money managers in embracing bitcoin’s “macro” play. 

Related: Money Reimagined: Bitcoin’s Tug of War as Wall Street Moves In

Developer doozy
More than 300 new developers per month are coming into crypto to work on Ethereum, according to data compiled by venture firm Electric Capital. In its annual developer report, the VC found the number of coders entering the crypto space to develop blockchains and projects is increasing nearly across the board – though Ethereum is by far seeing the most action. Almost 2,300 average monthly developers worked on Ethereum across the third quarter of 2020, with Bitcoin in second at a bit under 400 (up 70% from three years ago).

Gone public
An Ethereum-based investment fund, from the Canadian money manager 3iQ, has gone public on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). Some $76.5 million was raised in an initial public offering, which sold off two types of shares that offer exposure to ether, Ethereum’s native currency. In going public, the firm’s ether product marks a “world first,” according to a tweet by the fund manager on Thursday. 3iQ successfully launched a similar bitcoin fund earlier this year.

Corporate backers
Three major Chinese companies are taking part in the latest test of the nation’s central bank’s digital currency (CBDC) initiative. According to a local news source, winners in an ongoing currency lottery/pilot program in the city of Suzhou can now spend the “digital yuan” on Meituan’s bike-sharing platform, Didi’s taxi service and Bilibili’s video-sharing site. The latest giveaway on Dec. 12 reportedly sees 10,000 residents of the city apply for 200 digital yuan prizes. They can spend the CBDC at physical stores equipped with the appropriate point-of-sale technology, and now online via major Chinese companies. An earlier test occured in Shenzhen.

Quick bites

• BACK AGAIN: Banks in India are once again servicing cryptocurrency exchanges and traders. (CoinDesk)
• PUTIN EYES: Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed an order obliging public officials to report any cryptocurrency holdings. (CoinDesk)
• NYAG ORDER: New York Attorney General says Bitfinex, Tether could complete loan document handover in “weeks.” (CoinDesk)
• COOL $276K: Rapper Lil Yachty sells out his social token, $YACHTY, in 21 minutes and 41 seconds. (CoinDesk)
• ETHICAL STANDARDS: The World Economic Forum (WEF) is designing a global governance framework for the ethical data collection and sharing. (CoinDesk)
• STIGMA GONE? Wealthy are buying in. (Bloomberg)
• OFF EXCHANGES: Bitcoin continues to depart crypto exchanges. (Decrypt)

Market intel

Whale pack
The number of wallets holding at least 1,000 bitcoins now stands at a record high of 2,052, up 30% on the year, according to Chainalysis data. The so-called rich list, the number of individual addresses holding at least 1,000 coins, is also up over 7% to 2,270. The metric reached a record high of 2,274 on Nov. 24, according to data source Glassnode. “That’s a big increase in the wealthiest wallets and provides evidence that institutional investors have entered the market,” Chainlysis noted in its weekly market intel newsletter dated Dec. 10. That said, smaller holders have also increased: This year, wallets holding at least five BTC have increased by 8,842 (4%) to 234,408.

At stake

Related: First Mover: Stimulus Bet Wins Even as Bitcoin Slips Below $18K

First, rights.
Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith stands accused of… what exactly?

Last year, Griffith, a 37-year-old American computer science doctorate, was arrested and detained for violating U.S. sanctions against North Korea, after he travelled to the nation to present on the decentralized, public blockchain Ethereum.

The Ethereum Foundation staffer and research scientist presented on how to utilize this open cryptocurrency network for local and international transfers, at the Pyongyang Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference. This information – essentially that ether is uncensorable – is decidedly in the public domain. He did not receive an honorarium for his presentation.

Now, Griffith’s attorneys are left wondering what the boy genius is accused of. In a new court filing the defense is requesting “particulars” about what services Griffith allegedly provided, who else was involved and how these services violated U.S. law. (He traveled to the nation even after his request for permission to do so from the State Department had been denied.)

“The defense should not be forced to use a decoder ring on over 6,800 pages of discovery – much of which has been heavily redacted by the government – to discern the basic information that should be present in every indictment: what crimes were actually alleged to have been committed, by whom, and where,” they write.

So what’s at stake? Only the civil liberties guaranteed and protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The count against Griffith is conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, as well as some associated legal violations. Though prosecutors were shy of specifics. (The IEEPA provides broad executive powers to place economic sanctions on individuals, businesses, governments and other entities – thereby prohibiting U.S. persons and corporations from dealing with sanctioned nations.)

Notably, under the 1988 Berman Amendment, the IEEPA prohibits sanctioning the transfer of information or “informational materials.” That includes the type of speech freely available online. The question now is whether Griffith provided a service to the North Korean government, a point his defense has rebuked.

Even if it’s granted that Griffith traveled to a sanctioned nation – a big taboo – and broke defense mandates limiting the type of “services” or information one can provide to an adversarial nation – it’s likely the information Griffith presented on would not be sanctionable.

Griffith’s presentation was titled “Blockchain and Peace,” and according to the complaint it addressed “how a blockchain technology, including a ‘smart contract,’ could be used to benefit” North Korea. 

As the FBI itself has said, it contained “basic concepts accessible on the internet.”

Who won #CryptoTwitter? Related Stories

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Rostislav Solod, 19, is the youngest lawmaker in the city of Kramatorsk, Ukraine. He’s also a crypto millionaire.

Solod is the son of two national parliament members, Yuri Solod and Natalia Korolevska. He entered politics this autumn, fresh out of school. In his obligatory property declaration, he said he owned 185,000 monero, or $24.5 million worth of the cryptocurrency.  

This was, in fact, the only piece of property the young lawmaker owned himself. Everything else in his declaration, including real estate, cars and trademarks, belongs to his parents. 

Related: Ukrainian Politician Discloses Owning $24M in Privacy Coin Monero

Solod told CoinDesk during a recent interview that he started watching crypto when he was at school, around 2014. Bitcoin did not attract him. Monero (XMR), on the other hand, seemed like a more viable cryptocurrency due to its anonymity and constant demand by the dark market, Solod said. 

He accumulated monero through 2015 on exchanges, he said, using his savings and some money his parents gave him for a business project that never happened. Solod “never really liked school,” he said, so he spent a lot of time studying financial markets and learning about crypto. 

Ukraine, which was rated by Chainalysis as the country with the highest crypto adoption level in the world, is now in the process of passing its first legislation regulating crypto. Solod admits that, at first, he was not crazy about this. 

“For me, as an entrepreneur and a young guy, this is bad: I used to see crypto as an island in the ocean, untouched by a sinful hand. An absolutely free zone where everyone can do anything. But as a politician, I understand that this law will bring money into the [country’s] budget,” Solod said.

Related: Ukraine’s Draft Crypto Bill Passes First Parliamentary Hearing

Monero’s privacy feature no longer applies to Solod. He must report all his property as a public official, thanks to a law intended to prevent corruption and illegal enrichment in the country’s echelons of power. Going forward, the young politician might liquidate the crypto and reinvest the money into a new business project, he said.

Solod is thinking about getting into crypto mining (no decision on what coin so far) and buying some tokens from the freshly launched Efforce project supported by Apple co-founder Steve Wozlniak. But his favorite crypto-related plan is launching his own token, Solod said. 

“Elections and the political career distracted me from these plans for a while,” he said. 

They distract him from his studies as well. Solod said he’s currently pursuing an economy major at the Royal Holloway University in London. He’s studying remotely due to the coronavirus quarantine, he said, although it’s sometimes hard to find time for both work and school. 

Asked why he decided to go into politics, Solod referred to his family, saying that “he was born in it.” 

“I was interested to figure out why the country isn’t developing,” Solod said. “I really want to change the situation with the corruption. The old methods to prevent it aren’t working anymore.”

Related Stories

• Eastern Europe Actively Using Crypto for Illicit Purposes: Chainalysis
• Ukraine Leads Global Crypto Adoption, Chainalysis Says in New Report

British fintech firm Revolut has expanded its cryptocurrency offerings by adding four new tokens – eos, omg network, tezos and 0x – for its European users due to popular demand.

• Revolut, a London headquartered retail bank, announced Friday, four more cryptocurrencies will be made available this month – eos, omg network, tezos and 0x.
• Revolut first added bitcoin to its platform back in July 2017, soon after ether and litecoin followed later that year.
• In 2020 Revolut has been busy expanding its digital footprint and making cryptocurrencies more accessible to its users.
• This summer the company announced it partnered with New York-based trust company Paxos and would allow customers in 49 U.S. states to buy, hold and sell bitcoin and ether on the digital bank’s crypto platform. 
• In September, Revolut launched its cryptocurrency services to Australian residents. The company allows Australian customers to buy and sell up to six different digital assets, including bitcoin, ether, litecoin, bitcoin cash and stellar.

See also: UK Fintech Firm Revolut Brings Bitcoin, Ether Trading to US Customers

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It’s been a busy couple of weeks for Switzerland’s digital asset exchange, SDX.

In chronological order (and pardoning the unavoidable alphabet soup): Last week SDX’s parent company, SIX, announced test results around the “feasibility” of wholesale central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), involving the Swiss National Bank (SNB) and Bank of International Settlements (BIS). 

This week, SDX took a stake in crypto custody solution Custodigit with a view to building a “digital asset gateway” in Switzerland. Also this week, SDX said it is partnering with crypto-friendly Japanese bank SBI to build a digital asset exchange in Singapore by 2022. 

Related: JPMorgan Completes Live Blockchain Repo Trade Ahead of New Product Launch

This latter announcement was trumped to some degree by DBS Bank announcing its digital asset exchange, part-owned by Singapore’s stock exchange SGX, which will start trading next week. 

Read more: DBS Bank’s Digital Exchange to Begin Trading Crypto ‘Next Week’

Asked if each respective exchange’s plans meant a sort of jurisdictional rivalry was ramping up over digital assets, Tim Grant, head of SDX, was philosophical.

“I would say the adversarial, shareholder primacy model that really goes back to the Friedman economics of the 1970s and 1980s has really gone in the 21st century,” Grant said in an interview. “We think about collaborating as a key way to keep the industry competitive as we grow the pie for digital assets.”

Switzapore

Related: DBS Bank’s Digital Exchange to Begin Trading Crypto ‘Next Week’

Rivalry might not be the right word. Some might say we are seeing the strengthening of a crypto daisy chain connecting Switzerland and Singapore.

It tends to be the usual suspects joining hands when it comes to banking, custody and trading of crypto. Swiss-regulated crypto banks like Sygnum, which is part of Custodigit, also have a strong foothold in Singapore. Similarly, FINMA-licensed SEBA Bank has already been onboarded as a market maker for the new DBS Digital Exchange.  

(It’s interesting to note that Custodigit, which SDX is backing alongside Swisscom and Sygnum, was originally partnered with Deutsche Börse in Switzerland; the German exchange quietly departed the group about a year ago to pursue digital interests in its home jurisdiction.)

“Singapore and Switzerland have very similar characteristics,” said SDX’s Grant. “They each have very progressive central banks and regulatory regimes, and a progressive kind of political regime where they really support digital assets,” adding:

“I can imagine you’ll see us in other jurisdictions as we move forward. But Singapore was the obvious next step for us. We have a dialogue with DBS and all the big banks there and also the Monetary Authority of Singapore.”

Stepping back, the trepidation of a few years ago has been replaced with a strong demand for crypto from small to medium-sized banks and wealth managers, particularly in places like Switzerland and Singapore, Grant said. The Custodigit gateway is a response to this, he added, and also a way to bring in SDX’s investment in Omniex, which allows asset managers to access crypto exchanges.

The big picture is a steady institutional creep, said Grant, gathering pace in jurisdictions that have embraced the technology and also implemented the right sort of regulatory regimes.

“For me, the distinction between public and private, crypto and non-crypto is fast going away,” he said. “We are really starting to see this convergence happen now.”

CBDC impact

Something else Switzerland and Singapore have in common is an avid exploration of CBDCs.

SIX’s recent CBDC proof-of-concept, dubbed Project Helvetia, showed that work still needs to be done. The project explored the technological and legal feasibility of issuing a wholesale CBDC on a distributed ledger (R3’s Corda) and linking the digital asset platform to the existing wholesale payment system.

Read more: Swiss Wholesale CBDC Trial Shows ‘Feasibility’ for Central Bank Money on Distributed Ledger, BIS Says

Wholesale central bank money refers to the way banks and financial institutions pay for large securities trades and the like, as opposed to retail CBDC, which could one day be issued to individuals in place of physical cash.

Despite COVID-19 accelerating the case for retail CBDC, Grant said wholesale CBDCs are “more tractable,” adding that retail digital currencies are fraught with societal challenges, not least around the privacy of users. “Arguably we’re going to be able to generate impact sooner in the wholesale markets. We can see the pathway to wholesale CBDC a little clearer.”

David Rutter, CEO of R3, said the SIX trial was an important step in the evolution of CBDCs extending into 2021.

“It will become clear that it isn’t a race, it’s about getting it right,” Rutter said in an email.

Looking ahead, the hope was for SDX’s go-live date to be in Q2 2021, but Grant said the target is currently for end of 2021, early 2022, conditional on a number of regulatory factors and requirements. In the meantime, the exchange will continue partnering up and engaging in multiple cross-border initiatives.

“I doubt central bank currency will be issued in 2021, but that doesn’t stop us moving forward with SIX commercial money for the payment leg of the transactions that we will be facilitating,” he said.

SIX has also been involved in the CBDC project initiated by Banque de France, looking at ways to connect the two countries. Since SIX now owns Spanish stock exchange, Bolsas y Mercados Españoles, it means “accruing a bigger picture” in Europe, Grant said.

“We are excited to be in a jurisdiction like Switzerland, where everything is reasonably integrated,” he said. “But we’re not going to be as impactful as we know we can be, if we don’t engage with the Eurozone, which is clearly right in our backyard.”

Related Stories

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Sweden’s government is considering the adoption of a central bank digital currency, the e-krona, according to a Bloomberg report.

• Sweden’s financial markets minister, Per Bolund, said the Riksbank finance committee has launched a review into the prospects of moving the country to a digital currency, a study that will be completed in November 2022, according to the report.
• “It’s crucial that the digitalized payments market functions safely, and that it’s available to everybody … depending on how a digital currency is designed and which technologies are used, it can have large consequences for the entire financial system,” warned Bolund.
• As reported by CoinDesk in October, Sweden’s central banker Stefan Ingves has been pushing to go all-in on sovereign digital currency and fully adopt the e-krona.
• The Riksbank governor has called on the Swedish Parliament to do the same. Ingves has stressed the decision to issue an e-krona needs to be made at a political level.
• Currently, Sweden’s central bank is running an e-krona pilot project with Accenture Plc using distributed ledger technology.
• The Riksbank reports it has seen Sweden’s cash usage drop to its lowest level ever with the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating the shift away from traditional money.
• If the plan to become a cashless society goes ahead it would make Sweden one of the first countries in the world to fully adopt a digital currency.

Also read: E-Krona or Bust, Says Sweden’s Chief Central Banker, Trying to Drag Swedish Govt Into Digital Age

Related Stories

• Swiss Firm Launches ‘No-Fee’ Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Product on Nordic Growth Market
• E-Krona or Bust, Says Sweden’s Chief Central Banker, Trying to Drag Swedish Govt Into Digital Age
• Swedish Central Bank Bids to Host BIS Hub for Digital Currency Research
• Sweden Calls for Action Over Ukraine Crypto ‘Fraud Factory’

Swivel Finance – a decentralized protocol for fixed-rate lending and interest-rate derivatives – has raised $1.15 million in a seed round led by investment firm Multicoin Capital.

• According to a blog post on Thursday, other participants in the funding included Electric Capital, CMS Holdings, Divergence Ventures and DeFiance Capital.
• Several angel investors also invested, including Huobi adviser Alex Pack, Aave CEO Stani Kulechov, and DeFi Alliance’s Imran Khan and Qiao Wang.
• Swivel said it initially aims to facilitate “trustless” interest-rate swaps, allowing “cautious lenders to lock in a guaranteed yield.” Investors will also be able to speculate by leveraging their rate exposure.
• Formerly known as DeFiHedge, the firm said its interest rate offerings will place it in a “unique spot” in the decentralized finance market and could help grow the nascent DeFi industry.
• Multicoin Capital said in its post on the funding that interest-rate derivatives are the “most liquid financial product on the planet,” trading over $6.5 trillion per day. “Swivel unlocks this market and brings these concepts to crypto.”
• The seed investment will be used to ramp up development as the currently two-man team moves the project towards its version 1 mainnet launch.

See also: Multicoin Capital Hires Principal in Asia as Crypto VCs Look East

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Bitcoin (BTC) was lower for a second day, slipping below $18,000 to the lowest in almost two weeks. 

“The momentum that characterized bitcoin throughout October and November seems to have cooled down,” Matt Blom, head of sales and trading for the cryptocurrency-focused financial firm Diginex, told clients Friday in a note. “Prices retrace even in light of positive news.” 

In traditional markets, European shares fell as Germany reported record virus cases and deaths, and U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open amid fading optimism over stimulus talks in Washington. Gold weakened 0.1% to $1,834 an ounce. 

Market moves

Related: Blockchain Bites: Bitcoin Whales Throwing Their Weight Around, Virgil Griffith’s Rights

If everyone says bitcoin is a hedge against central bank money printing, does that make it a hedge against central bank money printing?  

It looks that way. Or at least that’s one interpretation of recent news developments and market signals. 

Government-issued currencies like U.S. dollars are accepted as a form of payment because the government decrees they be so. Such tenders are often referred to as “fiat” currencies, from the Latin “It shall be.” 

Bitcoin was invented 11 years ago as a new form of electronic peer-to-peer payment built atop a blockchain network that no single government, company or person would control. But it’s the limits on the cryptocurrency’s supply, hard-coded into the underlying network programming, that have garnered so much attention recently from big investors: Only 21 million bitcoin can ever be created, a true stumper for monetary economists or analysts accustomed to the supply and demand calculations typically applied to commodity markets from gold to oil to cocoa to pork bellies.

Related: Wallets With Over 1,000 Bitcoin Have Hit Record Number: Chainalysis

As governments and affiliated central banks have created trillions of dollars of fresh money this year to combat the steep economic toll of the coronavirus, more big institutional investors are deciding that bitcoin will hold its value as fiat currencies become ever more abundant. 

Take the latest announcement from MassMutual, a U.S. life insurance company with $567 billion of assets under management as of Dec. 31. As reported by CoinDesk’s Danny Nelson, the insurance company said Thursday it would take a 5% equity stake in the cryptocurrency investment firm NYDIG while buying $100 million of bitcoin for a general investment account. 

“There is nothing surprising to me about MassMutual leading their industry yet again by both seeing and acting on the long-term value of the bitcoin monetary risk premium for their policyowners,” NYDIG Executive Chairman Ross Stevens said in a press release posted on the insurance company’s website. 

Notice that term: “monetary risk premium” – the idea that bitcoin will protect investors against the risk that monetary authorities just keep printing more money. It’s the linchpin of the entire announcement. 

“As we’ve seen throughout the last few weeks, the level of institutional involvement in this tiny market is growing at a very rapid pace, and it will only continue to grow from here,” Mati Greenspan, founder of the foreign-exchange and cryptocurrency-analysis firm Quantum Economics, wrote Thursday in a newsletter. 

One takeaway is that perception might be turning into reality. If enough smart, powerful people with deep pockets decide bitcoin is a hedge against the risk of monetary easing, then fiat: It shall be. 

Thursday brought the news the European Central Bank, led by President Christine Lagarde, would expand a pandemic-related asset-purchasing program by €500 billion (US$607 billion) to €1.85 trillion. It’s the European version of quantitative easing, where central banks pump money into markets to boost asset prices and stimulate economic growth. The ECB already has cut one of its key lending rates to negative levels, so the extra stimulus pushes monetary policy stance to an unprecedented level of looseness.   

“The overall policy stance is expected to remain very accommodative,” Claus Vistesen, chief eurozone economist for the forecasting firm Pantheon, told clients Thursday in a note. “This includes persistent QE, in some form or the other, and negative rates for as far as the eye can see.”

First Mover has discussed extensively just how dramatically bitcoin prices have surged this year, some 156%, as the U.S. Federal Reserve printed trillions of dollars of fresh money to stimulate the economy and help finance the Treasury Department’s staggering and still-growing-fast debt load of $27.4 trillion. 

There’s also been a lot of discussion in foreign-exchange circles of a decline in the dollar’s value versus the euro, or rather the European currency’s 8.2% appreciation this year versus the dollar to $1.21.

Less often quoted is bitcoin’s price denominated in euros, which has climbed an also-dramatic 136% to €15,099. 

Such gains might play into the perception that bitcoin is an as-good hedge against debasement of euros as it is against other the dollar. Or perhaps other currencies as well, if big investors keep buying into the premise.  

– Bradley Keoun

Bitcoin Watch

Bitcoin was losing ground Friday amid a risk-off mood in traditional markets.

The top cryptocurrency by market value is trading near $17,700 at press time, representing a more than a 3% drop on the day. Meanwhile, major European stock markets and the futures tied to the S&P 500 are flashing red on Brexit uncertainty and the seemingly never-ending U.S. fiscal stimulus negotiations.

The sour mood is giving a lift to the U.S. dollar in foreign-exchange markets, putting extra pressure on dollar-denominated bitcoin. 

Short-term technical studies are beginning to roll over in favor of the bears. The widely-tracked 14-day relative strength index has dropped into the bearish territory below 50 for the first time since Oct. 6. Back then, bitcoin was trading near $10,500.

The RSI’s bearish turn comes following the cryptocurrency’s recent downside break of a narrowing price range. As such, support of the two-month rising trendline, currently at $17,000, stands exposed. Some investors have positioned for an extended pullback, as discussed earlier this week.

– Omkar Godbole

Read More: Wallets With Over 1,000 Bitcoin Have Hit Record Number, Chainalysis Says

What’s hot

Crypto-friendly CFTC Chair Tarbert intends to step down from leadership position early next year (CoinDesk)

India’s banks are once more serving crypto traders and exchanges (CoinDesk) 

Bitcoin whales buy low, sell high; retail investors chase rallies, according to data (CoinDesk) 

Ethereum blockchain ecosystem boasts almost 2,300 developers on average, far outpacing No. 2 Bitcoin’s roughly 400, Electric Capital report shows (CoinDesk) 

JPMorgan completes live blockchain repo trade ahead of new product launch (CoinDesk) 

Bitcoin chart views soared along with price in November, TradingView says (CoinDesk)

Binance Smart Chain successfully integrates Chainlink decentralized oracle network (Binance) 

Analogs The latest on the economy and traditional finance

U.S. unemployment claims rise to highest level since September (WSJ) 

No-deal Brexit more likely as dinner meeting between U.K., European Commission top officials leaves teams believing a compromise may not be possible before time runs out (Bloomberg) 

Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley introduces bill to provide second round of $1,200 stimulus checks (CNBC)

Mortgage originations on pace for best year ever with 30-year interest rates below 3% (WSJ)  

Stimulus talks drag as U.S. legislative leaders McConnell, Pelosi give no sign they’re ready to engage (Bloomberg)  

Pricing the S&P 500 in hourly pay shows fourfold rise in decade (Bloomberg) 

Realty investment arm of the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, has received an additional $53M capital commitments for its fifth Asia-focused fund (Nikkei Asia Review)

Tweet of the day Related Stories

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Attorneys for Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith filed documents over the past week arguing that they still don’t know what exactly he is being accused of.

Griffith, who was accused last year of violating U.S. sanctions law by traveling to North Korea and teaching locals how to transfer funds using cryptocurrency, has yet to receive a list of actual crimes he is being indicted for, according to a Dec. 8 document published to the federal court system. 

“The defense should not be forced to use a decoder ring on over 6,800 pages of discovery – much of which has been heavily redacted by the government – to discern the basic information that should be present in every indictment: what crimes were actually alleged to have been committed, by whom, and where,” the document read. 

Related: Western Union Suspends US Dollar Transfers to Cuba

Attorneys uninvolved in the case told CoinDesk in January that while prosecutors claimed Griffith violated the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, at the time they hadn’t revealed what specifically he was accused of saying or doing. 

According to one of Tuesday’s filings, this information is still unavailable. The document said Griffith is requesting “particulars” about what services he allegedly provided, who else was involved, and how these services violated U.S. law. 

Griffith’s attorney, Brian Klein, asked a federal judge to compel prosecutors to reveal details and evidence during a hearing in January. At the time prosecutors said they would comply with federal production requirements.

Legal rights

Griffith’s team further argued Tuesday that first amendment rights protected the Ethereum Foundation coder against government action. Repeating their long-standing argument that Griffith received no payment for his North Korea speech and therefore rendered no “services,” they said Griffith was well within his constitutional rights.

Related: Ethereum Dev Virgil Griffith’s Attorney Files Motion to Dismiss Charges of Aiding North Korea

“To argue that he did, the government has to twist basic words beyond their common meanings,” the filing said.

The U.S. State Department banned all U.S. citizens from traveling to North Korea without express permission in 2017.

The argument was made in support of a motion to dismiss filed last month

Moreover, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) had a much greater role in the investigation leading up to Griffith’s 2019 arrest than had been initially disclosed, a third filing said. 

FBI agents were discussing the case with OFAC employees at least as early as October 2019, well before the previously disclosed timeline of November 2019, according to the filing. 

“The exact nature of OFAC’s expressed concerns are identical to the issues at stake here: namely, whether Mr. Griffith’s presentation falls under the informational exemption under the Berman Amendment and the FTIA and whether the giving of an oral presentation constitutes a ‘service’ in the context of a conference,” the filing said.

Information in the public domain is generally exempt from IEEPA restrictions.

As such, the filing says, even if Griffith provided any information that falls under OFAC’s “services” bucket, it should still fall within that public domain exemption that is protected by the First Amendment.

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The popular narrative that institutional bitcoin investors have been leading the 2020 price rally looks to be backed up by on-chain data.

In 2020, the number of wallets – defined as a set of blockchain addresses controlled by a single entity – holding at least 1,000 bitcoins has increased by 302 (17%) and is now at a record high of 2,052, according to Philip Gradwell, economist at Chainalysis.

“That’s a big increase in the wealthiest wallets and provides evidence that institutional investors have entered the market,” Chainlysis noted in its weekly market intel newsletter dated Dec. 10.

Related: First Mover: Stimulus Bet Wins Even as Bitcoin Slips Below $18K

The so-called rich list, the number of individual addresses holding at least 1,000 coins, is also up over 7% to 2,270. The metric reached a record high of 2,274 on Nov. 24, according to data source Glassnode.

Several prominent publicly listed companies such as MicroStrategy and Square have diversified their cash holdings into bitcoin over the past few months, boosting the cryptocurrency’s appeal as a reserve asset. Even insurers have joined the bitcoin bandwagon with Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance having now invested $100 million in the cryptocurrency, as reported on Thursday.

Smaller investors have also been increasing their holdings. This year, This year, wallets holding five or more bitcoins have amassed over 2.4 million coins, Gradwell said. The number of wallets holding at least five BTC has increased by 8,842 (4%) to 234,408. 

Bitcoin nearly doubled from $10,000 to a new record high of $19,920 in the September to December period. The cryptocurrency was last seen trading near $17,750, representing a 150% year-to-date gain, according to CoinDesk 20 data.

Related: Bitcoin Whales Buy Low, Sell High; Retail Investors Chase Rallies: Data

It remains to be seen if the big investors continue to stack more coins during a potential price sell-off.

Bitcoin balances held on exchanges have declined by over 18% this year, taking sell-side liquidity off the market and indicating a strong holding sentiment.

However, the cryptocurrency has pulled back from its peak price in recent days. According to analysts, the decline has been fueled by some investors liquidating their holdings and represents a temporary bull market correction.

As a result, short-term technical indicators are beginning to roll over in favor of the bears.

The widely-tracked 14-day relative strength index has dropped into the bearish territory below 50 for the first time since Oct. 6. Back then, bitcoin was trading near $10,500.

The RSI’s bearish turn comes following the cryptocurrency’s recent downside break of a narrowing price range.

As such, support of the two-month rising trendline, currently at $17,000, stands exposed. Some options investors have positioned for an extended pullback, as discussed earlier this week.

Also read: Bitcoin’s Options Market Skews Bearish as Spot Price Loses Ground

Related Stories

• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Briefly Slides Below $18K as ETH Is More Volatile Than BTC in 2020
• MassMutual Buys $100M in Bitcoin, Bets on Institutional Adoption With $5M NYDIG Stake

Newly released data from crypto exchange OKEx gives one possible explanation of how larger holders of bitcoin – or “whales” – were able to influence prices as bitcoin rallied to a new all-time high in November.

During that bitcoin run-up, institutions and whales were able to buy dips and oftentimes sell when prices went up. That left the majority of the retail investors scrambling to chase the rally, according to a newly released OKEx data report.

Trading data of the bitcoin/tether pair on OKEx’s platform between August and November showed that during the November bitcoin rally, whales’ such as individual investors with sizable holdings and, potentially, institutions were taking profits by selling their bitcoin. During that same month, smaller-sized traders, such as retail investors, continued buying as they did in September and October, despite higher prices in the oldest cryptocurrency, according to the report compiled by OKEx and blockchain data firm Kaiko.

Related: First Mover: Stimulus Bet Wins Even as Bitcoin Slips Below $18K

Notably, during the end of November, as bitcoin’s price was approaching its new all-time high, a look at day-by-day trading activity of different groups of users on OKEx indicate that whales and institutions bought the Thanksgiving price dip, while retail and other smaller traders panic-sold their bitcoin during that small market crash on Nov. 26.

According to the report, the data indicated that while large bitcoin holders are “in the business of buying low and selling high,” they are not necessarily interested in buying bitcoin into rallies the way retail investors have been.

“Ultimately, [whales] seek to drive the market, shake out retail traders in panic and capitalize on opportunities to buy relatively cheap coins,” according to a the news release from OKEx. “For retail traders, and everyone else in between, the choice seems to be between two options: swimming with the tide or against it.”

A different take

Yet, data from another crypto analysis firm, CryptoQuant, has a slightly different take. Its view is that throughout 2020 bitcoin whales have almost never missed a “buy the dip” opportunity.

Related: Wallets With Over 1,000 Bitcoin Have Hit Record Number: Chainalysis

One CryptoQuant conclusion is the large-sized traders may have prevented bitcoin’s price from crashing further and instead drove each price rally, potentially making profits by selling bitcoin at higher prices.

New institutions turning whales into small fish

There appears to be two types of institutions in the crypto space in 2020: those crypto natives including crypto quant firms and family offices, and those who are from the traditional financial markets such as MicroStrategy or MassMutual.

The latter group is unlikely to be the cause of each price dip by intentionally selling their bitcoin in order to cause a market crash, according to analysts who spoke with CoinDesk.

Major institutions “have not disclosed selling positions that would indicate this,” John Todaro, told CoinDesk in an email response, citing MicroStrategy and Grayscale (CoinDesk’s sister company) as examples. Both companies have not been on the sell side of bitcoin.

Todaro added that although institutional money has been part of the reasons for this year’s rallies, it does not explain recent price gains because institutions often trade bitcoin through over-the-counter firms, which are designed to have minimal price impact on the market.

Over-the-counter (OTC) desks “have increased two-way markets as more counterparties are on-boarded, allowing them to match buyers and sellers more directly to have less impact on markets,” Todaro said. “Smaller institutions or whales, though, may be less reliant on OTC desks and more likely to utilize exchanges, even placing large market orders that could have a larger immediate impact on price.”

And as more large institutions enter the bitcoin market, small institutions and whales are increasingly becoming smaller market players, Todaro said.

As well, traditional institutions are unlikely to deliberately impact the market because they are buying the narrative that bitcoin is digital gold, said Matthew Hougan, chief investment officer of Bitwise Asset Management. Therefore, it’s unlikely this new class of bitcoin investors would sell into market crashes.

“They don’t sell into dips because they don’t have anything to sell, and because they feel they need to establish a position in the market given the macro conditions and the significant upside potential still left in crypto,” Hougan said.

Correction (Dec. 11, 2020 14:10 UTC): Whales buy low and sell high. The original headline misstated the direction.

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The liquidator of the defunct cryptocurrency exchange Cryptopia has told former customers they can now begin making claims for the return of their funds.

In a blog post Wednesday, the New Zealand branch of accountancy firm Grant Thornton said it has opened a claims portal allowing affected users to register for the repatriation of property still held by the exchange. All accounts were frozen after over US$17 million in in ether and ERC-20 tokens was stolen during a hack in early 2019.

Grant Thornton said the “sheer volume” of emails means it is informing users about the portal in batches throughout the week.

Related: New Zealand Man Charged With Money Laundering via Crypto and Luxury Cars

Around 960,000 former Cryptopia users are being informed, and those registering are being asked to confirm some account details to ensure only verified users of the exchange make claims. As previously reported, Grant Thornton said the steps are necessary to ensure the repatriation of assets complies with New Zealand law.

In April 2020, a ruling by the High Court in Christchurch said customers were entitled to the assets they held in Cryptopia accounts, determining those assets are classed as “property.”

In turn, that ruling paved the way for Grant Thornton to initiative the claims. “This marks the launch of the Cryptopia claims portal to start the process of returning account holders’ property,” the liquidator’s post reads.

At the time of liquidation, Cryptopia had US$100 million in cryptocurrencies. It’s not clear what percentage of their original holdings users are likely to receive via their claims. As well as the large number of account holders, 37 creditors, 90 shareholders and New Zealand’s tax agency are also seeking a good portion of the company’s remaining assets.

Related: Cryptopia Users Can Claim Assets From End of 2020, Says Hacked Exchange’s Liquidator

See also: Cryptopia Creditor Issues Legal Notice to Liquidator Over Alleged Failures, Fees

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• New Zealand Stock Exchange Hit Repeatedly by Cybercriminals Demanding Bitcoin
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Banks in India are again doing business with select cryptocurrency exchanges and their customers.

Top institutions such as State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Yes Bank are allowing customers to use their bank accounts to fund cryptocurrency trading. They are further offering various facilities to cryptocurrency exchanges, sources familiar with the matter told The Economic Times.

Accounts of major exchanges had been suspended after the Reserve Bank of India issued an order barring banks from using their systems for cryptocurrency-related transactions in April 2018. The ban was quashed by the Supreme Court earlier this year.

Related: Putin Orders Russia’s Public Officials to Report Crypto Holdings

“Banks earlier took a cautious approach even after the supreme court overruled the central bank’s crypto ban in March.” Gaurav Dahake, founder and CEO of Bangalore-based exchange Bitbns, told CoinDesk in an email. “But with time and price momentum around bitcoin, a lot more clients started demanding them to open up an account specific to crypto trading and banks have started opening them up now.”

Bitcoin recently rose to a new record high of $19,920, topping the previous peak price of $19,783 reached in December 2017.

Sumit Gupta, CEO of Mumbai-based cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX, confirmed via WhatsApp that his exchange has been collaborating with multiple banking partners to build and develop business services ever since the Supreme Court order was overturned.

Meanwhile, Nischal Shetty, CEO of Binance-backed cryptocurrency exchange WazirX, told CoinDesk that banks have reached out to the company to offer working capital or other loans and financial services.

Related: SEC Enforcement Director to Step Down by End of Year

A banker, however, told The Economic Times that his bank is still cautious while dealing with cryptocurrency exchanges and serves only a select few so far. CoinDesk reached out to HDFC Bank and State Bank of India for comment on the matter, but did not receive response by press time.

Also read: India Plans to Tax Income From Bitcoin Investments: Report

While banks have begin serving crypto exchanges and traders, the Indian government’s stance on cryptocurrency trading remains unclear. As of September, the government was said to be mulling a ban on cryptocurrency trading but exploring blockchain’s utility in managing land records, the pharma supply chain and educational certificate records.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed an order obliging public officials to report any cryptocurrency holdings.

According to the document, signed on Thursday, both current civil servants and people about to assume a government position must disclose which digital assets they own, as well as in what quantity and where they were purchased from. The first reports must be provided from Jan. 1 through June 30, 2021.

The reports must include all types of digital assets – including cryptocurrencies, digital securities and utility tokens – owned by a current or prospective civil servant, as well as their spouses and children. People seeking government roles will also have to make a crypto disclosure during the application process.

Related: India’s Banks Are Once More Serving Crypto Traders and Exchanges

The disclosures will come as a complement to the usual mandatory reports of candidates’ property, a standard anti-corruption procedure.

Cryptocurrencies are recognized as a type of property by a Russian law signed by President Putin this summer and coming into force in January 2021.

See also: Russian Prime Minister Pledges to ‘Civilize’ Crypto Market and Prevent Scams

The country’s Ministry of Finance recently proposed a package of draft bills detailing the rules for reporting crypto for tax purposes. According to the drafts, individuals and companies must report their holdings if annual transactions exceed 600,000 Russian rubles (about $7,800). Failure to do so would lead to fines or up to three years in jail, depending on the amount of crypto concealed from the tax agency.

Related: SEC Enforcement Director to Step Down by End of Year

However, the government ended up softening these rules. On Nov. 30, it introduced a lighter version of the draft bill into Russia’s parliament, the State Duma. Under this bill, a failure to report crypto holdings in a timely manner should lead to a fine of 50,000 rubles (around $682), and not reporting them at all means a fine of 10% of the sum of all incoming or outgoing transactions, depending on which amount is the larger.

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Three major Chinese companies, Didi, Meituan and Bilibili, are taking part in the latest test of the central bank’s digital currency (CBDC) initiative, according to local news source CLS.

• The report, which cites Financial Associated Press, says successful applicants in a lottery-based trial in the city of Suzhou can spend their digital yuan winnings online via Meituan’s bike-sharing platform, Didi’s taxi service and Bilibili’s video-sharing site.
• China is accelerating its push toward the adoption of a digital currency as the People’s Bank of China works with banks and commercial entities on public pilots to gauge user experience. The Suzhou lottery follows one in Shenzhen in October. 
• As reported by CoinDesk, e-commerce firm JD.com is also taking part in the Suzhou test, allowing winners to spend digital yuan at an online mall.
• The latest giveaway on Dec. 12 reportedly sees 10,000 residents of the city apply for 200 digital yuan prizes. They can spend the CBDC at physical stores equipped with the appropriate point-of-sale technology, and now online via major Chinese companies. Shenzhen’s trial was focused on bricks-and-mortar stores.
• According to CLS’ report, six banks are also taking part in the Suzhou effort.

See also: JD.Com Says It’s Accepting China’s Digital Yuan for Latest Lottery

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The New York Attorney General (NYAG) anticipates the handover of loan documents relating to an alleged $850 million cover-up will be completed in “the coming weeks.”

In a letter filed with the New York Supreme Court on Wednesday, the NYAG said stablecoin issuer Tether and cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex had been cooperating with its inquiry.

The NYAG also noted the timeline for documents to be handed over would come after a deadline, previously mediated by the court, that once again ordered the crypto companies to hand over documents outlining their financial relationship.

Related: OKEx’s Trading Volumes and Tether Reserve Plunge on Possible User Exodus

As such, the NYAG seeks in the letter to extend an injunction, which bars Tether from loaning Bitfinex any further funds, to Jan. 15, 2021. The date has previously been extended on multiple occasions and is again expected to expire this week before the documents are provided.

The NYAG has alleged that Bitfinex attempted to cover up the loss of $850 million in funds held on behalf of customers via payment processor Crypto Capital, and that it secretly borrowed the shortfall from sister firm Tether’s reserves. Tether issues the USDT stablecoin, which now has a market capitalization of close to $20 billion, according to markets data site CoinGecko.

Counsel for the crypto companies previously argued the document production order was too broad. The NYAG’s office argued otherwise claiming Bitfinex’s attempts to delay the then 17-month-old order “must stop.”

The operators of Crypto Capital were indicted in 2019, including ex-Minnesota Vikings owner Reginald Fowler, accused of stashing funds over a global network of accounts at 56 different banks.

Related: Aquaculture Firm Completes Australia’s First IPO Raise Using Cryptocurrency

Bitfinex has filed for multiple subpoenas in an attempt to recover the nearly $1 billion it lost.

See also: New York Supreme Court Denies Bitfinex’s Lack-of-Jurisdiction Claim

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An Ethereum-based fund has completed its initial public offering (IPO) on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX).

According to a press release on Thursday, Canadian investment fund manager 3iQ announced the sale of more than 7.2 million Class A and F units totaling gross proceeds of around $76.5 million. The Ether Fund Class A Units, aimed at all investor types, have opened for trading under the symbol QETH.U. Investors in the U.S. are specifically excluded, however.

3iQ successfully launched a similar bitcoin fund earlier this year. The ether product’s exchange listing marks a “world first,” according to a tweet by the fund manager on Thursday.

Related: Ethereum Far Outpaces Bitcoin in Developer Activity in 2020: Electric Capital Report

The fund is aimed to provide investors with the ability to purchase shares in the fund and receive exposure to changes in ether’s price over time, providing investors with “the opportunity for long-term capital appreciation,” per the statement. Ether is the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain network.

U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Gemini said it will provide exclusive custody of the fund’s assets. The exchange’s co-founder, Tyler Winklevoss, declared it was “huge news for Ethereans,” in a Thursday tweet.

See also: $14M Bitcoin Fund Gets Listed on Toronto Stock Exchange

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Weak volumes and rotations into other cryptocurrencies are likely impeding bitcoin’s price movement from going higher. Meanwhile, ether has been more volatile than bitcoin in 2020 and could remain that way.

• Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $18,349 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 0.14% over the previous 24 hours.
• Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $17,904-$18,652 (CoinDesk 20)
• BTC slightly above its 10-day and 50-day moving averages, a bullish trending signal for market technicians.

The price of bitcoin once again fell below $18,000 Thursday, going as low as $17,904 according to the CoinDesk 20. The price was able to reverse course, with higher volume pushing it back up to $18,349 as of press time. 

Read More: Bitcoin Stuck as ECB’s Lagarde Primes Extra €500B Stimulus

Related: MassMutual Buys $100M in Bitcoin, Bets on Institutional Adoption With $5M NYDIG Stake

Constantin Kogan, partner at crypto investment firm Wave Financial, pegs $17,900 as a “support” level whereby if traders don’t start scooping up bitcoin to push price back up, there may be a larger fall. “The trend is weakening,” Kogan told CoinDesk. “If we dip further then I will consider that as a start of a downtrend.”

Chris Thomas, head of digital assets for Swissquote Bank, has noticed a lull in the market this week but sees it as a buying opportunity for those who have a longer time frame. “I’m not scared by this. It’s just providing a better entry point for those who want to invest mid-long term,” said Thomas to CoinDesk. “I haven’t seen much [over-the-counter] or larger activity this week, though.”

At a combined $1.1 billion as of Wednesday’s close, average weekday spot volume on major CoinDesk 20 exchanges is lighter this week than last week’s $1.7 billion. As of press time, combined volumes were at $873 million Thursday. 

Henrik Kugelberg, an over-the-counter (OTC) crypto trader, is not dismayed by the doldrums in the crypto market this week. “It’s a moderate dip on the way up,” Kugelberg told CoinDesk.  “Nothing to see here.”

Related: Ethereum Far Outpaces Bitcoin in Developer Activity in 2020: Electric Capital Report

Rotation into alternative cryptocurrencies has been a popular theme in the crypto market as of late, and Swissquote’s Thomas pointed to XRP as one example of this dynamic. “Our data shows that in the last four weeks the volume of XRP has increased substantially at the detriment to ether and a little bit bitcoin,” Thomas said. 

Read More: Coinbase to Support Spark Token Airdrop to XRP Holders

Indeed, XRP, the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has seen a bump in volume over the past month, according to data from aggregator CoinGecko.

An airdrop in collaboration with Coinbase is likely accelerating a hype cycle on XRP, leading to volume jumping along with price, noted Thomas.“I think XRP volumes continue to outperform BTC and ETH ahead of tomorrow night’s flare token snapshot,“ said Thomas.

Ether more volatile than bitcoin this year

Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was down Thursday, trading around $566 and slipping 1.1% in 24 hours as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET).

Read More: Ethereum Far Outpaces Bitcoin in Developer Activity in 2020

The 30-day volatility for ether for the most part has been higher than for bitcoin in 2020, according to data collected by CoinDesk Research.

Vishal Shah, a crypto options trader and founder of derivatives venue Alpha5, says Ethereum’s ambitious “2.0” upgrade provides totally different fundamentals for ETH compared to BTC, giving it wilder gyrations.

“ETH should have a higher volatility given that it’s a less established protocol than bitcoin; it is materially smaller in market cap and has more uncertainties on the immediate horizon,” Shah told CoinDesk. “The largest uncertainty would be the settling of [the Beacon Chain] and the transition to 2.0, it’s all a bit uncharted.“

Other markets

Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are mixed Thursday, mostly red. One winner as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):

• bitcoin cash (BCH) + 0.10%

Notable losers:

• orchid (OXT) – 8.5%
• ethereum classic (ETC) – 4%
• stellar (XLM) 3.8%

Read More: Paxos Becomes Latest Crypto Firm to File for Federal Bank Charter

Equities:

• Asia’s Nikkei 225 ended the day in the red 0.23% as investors signaled uncertainty amid Brexit and U.S. stimulus negotiations.
• The FTSE 100 in Europe closed down 0.53% as investors weighed Brexit talks against European Central Bank stimulus.
• The S&P in the United States was down 0.30% as investor concerns over stimulus negotiations mixed with bad unemployment data led the index lower.

Commodities:

• Oil was up 2.5%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $46.86.
• Gold was in the red 0.14% and at $1,836 as of press time.

Treasurys:

• The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield fell Thursday dipping to 0.915 and in the red 2.1%.

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The World Economic Forum (WEF) is designing a global governance framework for the ethical collection and sharing of data, the organization announced Tuesday. 

WEF’s Data for Common Purpose Initiative (DCPI) is the first of its kind and aims to “responsibly enhance the societal benefit from data” by creating guidelines to ensure governments and researchers can more readily rely on data for making decisions that benefit the public, especially in crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the announcement.    

Sheila Warren, head of Data, Blockchain and Digital Assets at WEF, told CoinDesk that having siloed, or isolated, data led to a delay in humanity’s ability to respond to the pandemic with the necessary speed and agility. 

Related: How FinCEN Became a Honeypot for Sensitive Personal Data

“While [siloing data] often comes from either good intentions or, more realistically speaking, business imperatives, it has really meaningful consequences,” said Warren, who also co-hosts CoinDesk’s Money Reimagined podcast, referring to the problems surrounding personal protective equipment (PPE) provisions and supply chains during the pandemic. 

The DCPI hopes to refocus data policy and models towards a range of “common purposes” like public health, environmental protection and disaster management, while ensuring people’s personal data cannot be used for non-permissioned purposes. 

The project already has the support of 10 governments and over 50 global partners, the announcement said, including consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and blockchain platforms such as Elastos. 

A number of pilot projects have launched in Japan, Colombia and India, Warren said, though it’s important to note that WEF focuses on policy pilots as opposed to traditional tech proof-of-concept.

‘Differentiated Permissioning’

Related: First CoinSwap Test Could Herald an Era of Stronger Bitcoin Privacy

One goal of the initiative is to enable differentiated permissioning of the same data for varied purposes. This means people would be able to set permissions around how their data can be used. 

For instance, the initiative asks you to imagine a world where devices collect your vitals and medical information but you could set permissions for how that data is used in research or testing related to COVID-19, cancer, dementia and more, or get paid if someone wants to use your data for market research.  

Read more: The Web Wasn’t Built for Privacy, but It Could Be

According to the initiative, user data will “automatically be encrypted, anonymized and transmitted along with digital rights management rules to ensure that the data cannot be used for other purposes,” likening personal data sharing to the controlled sharing of music.

Warren said people should be able to make a choice about what happens with their data beyond the yes-or-no choice that is available now.

“I don’t think the general tenor is that all data should be approved by each individual. I think the idea is that we should create a system in which that is possible,” Warren said. 

The role of blockchain

According to the WEF announcement, the prioritization of data protection and privacy by institutions over constructive data sharing has led to the failure of harnessing the full value of data as well as the “rapid fragmentation of data governance policies.”

“I think that there are a lot of ways to protect privacy and also share data,” Warren said, adding that whether it is a question of data sharing, access or encryption, blockchain can help.

DCPI partner, the Elastos Foundation, is developing a collection of open-source software to build a free and decentralized internet.

Donald Bullers, Global Technical lead at Elastos, told CoinDesk blockchain firms can incorporate policies and visions resulting from initiatives like the DCPI into client-facing products. 

Read more: How FinCEN Became a Honeypot for Sensitive Personal Data

“We can take some of these discussions on data marketplaces, data exchange, global accessibility … and we can implement that into the software that we’re developing,” Bullers said.

Blockchain also has a role to play in data protection by providing a new way to think about permissioning, Warren added. According to Bullers, Elastos is building a specific profile for each individual where they can house data privately and control the “inbound-outbound” of their data. 

“You’re already giving up a lot of your information to these large corporations, or these siloed enterprises where they’re storing it on their own servers, and they have complete control and you’re okay with that. But what we’re really trying to do is to flip that and make it so that the individual or those who want to control their own data can do that,” Bullers said.  

But Bullers added that blockchain can only address small parts of the larger problem around data governance. 

“Blockchains do not solve all the problems of the internet,” Zach Warsavage, public relations director at Elastos told CoinDesk. 

Blockchains are public and are “terribly inefficient” at storing large amounts of data, he said, so other technologies would be needed to assist any blockchain base.

Pilot projects  

According to Warren, the DCPI will leverage the global network and prestige of the WEF to create momentum for the multi-year program, and there are two pilot programs already in motion. 

The Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Colombia is working with the city of Medellin to develop a government-led data marketplace to connect data contributors and consumers, the WEF announcement said.

In Norway, WEF’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Ocean is working with partners in conservation and government to improve the environmental footprint of ocean industries by combating emissions, plastic waste and overfishing.

“The Data for Common Purpose Initiative gives us a solid platform to work from, both in developing content but not the least to engage with ambitious partners from all sectors,” Bjørn Tore Markussen, chief executive at Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in Norway, said in the WEF announcement.

Two more pilots are in the works in Japan and India, Warren said. The WEF is working with the government of Japan and the private sector to explore data exchanges to address problems ranging from public health to disaster prevention and traffic safety. In India, the initiative is looking to address data sharing around agriculture. 

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Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. is jumping into the institutional bitcoin game with a $100 million investment in bitcoin and a $5 million equity stake in NYDIG.

The twin plays – both revealed in a Thursday press release – give MassMutual direct exposure to the cryptocurrency’s price swings and signal it’s betting that other big fish will follow suit. NYDIG is one of the fastest-growing institutional crypto shops with $2.3 billion under management. It provided MassMutual with the $100 million buy.

Without specifically explaining why it saw bitcoin as a reasonable investment, MassMutual told WSJ it was seeking “measured yet meaningful” exposure to an increasingly digital world.

Related: Ethereum Far Outpaces Bitcoin in Developer Activity in 2020: Electric Capital Report

MassMutual’s $100 million BTC bet is barely a drop in its general investment account’s hulking $235 billion money bucket. Coming from a 169-year-old insurance institution in the business of measuring risk it could wield outsize influence on bitcoin’s perception among mainstream investors.

That storyline has already been playing out all year.

The life insurance company is the latest institutional stalwart to join bitcoin’s march into the financial mainstream this year. Since the pandemic took hold, publicly traded corporations and storied fund managers have been embracing the cryptocurrency at a pace not seen at any other point in its history.

But with its dual investment in NYDIG, the firm that facilitated this buy, MassMutual is moving to embrace the infrastructure powering institutional adoption.

Related: First Mover: Bitcoin Stuck as ECB’s Lagarde Primes Extra €500B Stimulus

NYDIG has been forthright in its courting of the institutional class. Wednesday, the firm hired crypto banker Patrick Sells to lead its crypto-services outreach efforts. It regularly raises tens of millions of dollars for crypto funds, including a $100 million bitcoin fund filed over Thanksgiving. That mammoth vehicle, which CoinDesk reported at the time, only had a single investor.

NYIDG declined to comment on the investor of that Fund.

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