Bitcoin officially reached an all-time high last Monday, smashing through its former ceiling of $19,783 recorded in December 2017. 🎉

The 2020 bull run is a stark contrast from the "retail-driven, speculative frenzy" of the 2017 rally (Mike Novogratz's words). This time, the upward trend has been driven by institutional investors with the likes of MicroStrategy, Square, and PayPal all jumping on the crypto bandwagon.

Cryptocurrency exchange bitFlyer reported seeing a threefold increase in the number of new registrations during the rally, which was short lived... BTC stumbled soon after and is currently fighting tooth and nail to hold above $19,000.

But Bitcoin's ATH wasn't the only thing on everyone's lips this week. US securities regulator Hester Peirce, Grayscale MD Michael Sonnenshein and legendary fund manager Paul Tudor Jones have all made important statements about Ethereum in the last few days.

In interview with Cointelegraph, Peirce was optimistic about the recent launch of the Ethereum 2.0 Beacon Chain -which finally took its first breath as planned, at just after 12 pm UTC on Dec. 1. Sonnenshein highlighted in a phone interview with Bloomberg that though Bitcoin was the first crypto stop for most investors, a growing number are now  paying attention to Ethereum. And more on Paul Tudor Jones' comments below!

Below is our weekly roundup of the week's top stories. If you’d like to get in touch with us about any of our products or services, we look forward to hearing from you. Just send us a note.

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Top stories of the week

Microstrategy buys more Bitcoin, now holding BTC worth over $780 million in treasury

Nasdaq-listed Microstrategy Inc has bought $50 million worth of Bitcoin – in cash. The company now holds about 40,824 Bitcoin, worth over $780 million at the current price. According to Bitcoin Treasuries,MicroStrategy holds more Bitcoin than any other public company,

CEO Michael Saylor announced his company’s third Bitcoin purchase via Twitter on Friday. Microstrategy also informed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of its purchase of 2,574 Bitcoin at an average purchase price of $19,427.

MicroStrategy first bought $250 million in Bitcoin on August 11, followed by an additional $175 million worth of BTC one month later.

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Rep. Emmer voices opposition on new stablecoin regulation bill in Congress

On Wednesday night, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib introduced a bill before the U.S. House of Representatives looking to make fiat-pegged stablecoin operators abide by the same rules and registration requirements expected of banks.

Almost immediately, the bill (called STABLE Act) drew strong pushback from the crypto community. The CIO of BlockTower Capital, Ari Paul,commented that the Act would do the exact opposite of what it is promising, while Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss called out Tlaib in a tweet, saying: "When has less competition and giving banks more power ever lead to more consumer protection?"

A number of congressional members have also openly opposed the bill. Speaking to The Block, US Representative Tom Emmer, who has long been an advocate for blockchain, said: "Those of us supportive of developing these new innovations in the United States have worked to learn about and understand this technology, which stands to have enormous beneficial impacts on low-to-moderate income Americans, and individuals worldwide."

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After Bitcoin, Paul Tudor Jones endorses Ethereum

Earlier this year, billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones surprised the crypto community when he turned bullish on Bitcoin - even admitting that the cryptocurrency represents about 2% of his investment portfolio. Speaking to Yahoo! Finance on Thursday, Jones updated on his prognoses for Bitcoin while also expressing positive views about the future of Ethereum.

Envisioning a bullish future similar to “the metals complex where you have precious crypto,” Bitcoin would represent gold (owing to its digital scarcity and legacy as the first crypto), while Ethereum would be platinum because of its versatility. PTJ also likened the current crypto ecosystem to the rise of internet companies in the 1990s and pondered the idea of digital assets replacing cash in the future - though emphasising that in his opinion, only a few projects will survive in the medium to long term.

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In case you missed it...

⚡️ Russia’s Sberbank to launch new digital assets platform. Read more

⚡️ CZ lands on Bloomberg 50, next to Fauci and Kaepernick. Read more

⚡️ CEO of BlackRock sees Bitcoin as ‘global market’ asset. Read more

⚡️ Libra rebrands to Diem ahead of  January launch. Read more

⚡️ SushiSwap surges 35% Amid Yearn.finance “merger”. Read more

⚡️ S&P Dow Jones indices to launch customizable crypto Index in 2021. Read more

⚡️ CEO of Germany's second-largest exchange will soon run BitMEX. Read more

⚡️ South Korea will delay 20% crypto trading tax to 2022. Read more

⚡️ Poloniex faces outage due to DDoS attack. Read more

⚡️ DeFi hits 1 million users, Ethereum usage surging. Read more

⚡️ Hong Kong OTC trading firm acquires OMG Network. Read more

⚡️ Real Vision invested 10% of its cash holdings in Bitcoin. Read more

⚡️ Visa partners with Circle to Integrate USDC for payments. Read more

⚡️ Audio streaming giant Spotify is looking into crypto payments. Read more

⚡️ Coinbase to incentivize market makers for improving the liquidity of less liquid trading pairs. Read more

Copper news

Copper CEO: Facebook’s Diem stablecoin is an existential threat to traditional banking

Last week, the Facebook-backed cryptocurrency project, the Libra Association, rebranded as Diem in an attempt to stress its independence as it seeks regulatory approval for a 2021 launch.

In an article for Cointelegraph, published on Saturday, our CEO Dmitry Tokarev looks at why regulators and central banks are so concerned about stablecoins, and whether there is a role for them in the financial ecosystem.

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New blog post: Inside Russia’s flood of new crypto regulations

One of the most interesting love-hate relationships to watch over the past year has been that of Russia and the crypto industry.

Russia recently ranked second in Chainalysis' global crypto adoption index, proving that even while its government scrambles to regulate digital assets, crypto has found a home with the country’s institutional and retail investors. Our latest article provides a glimpse into the latest legal developments in Russia's crypto sector.

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November Regulator Roundup

Our November regulator roundup  is jam-packed with 130+ regulation and policy updates, so if you haven't checked it out yet, grab a brew and catch up on all you may have missed.

Read More

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