Looking back at last week’s biggest news, including price analyses for BTC, ETH, and XRP.

Among the most positive news out this week was pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Biontech’s new vaccine and its reportedly extremely high effectiveness. Stock markets rallied on the news and Bitcoin also appeared to touch off this rally, with the BTC price surpassing $16K on Thursday.

Paypal - after weeks of beta testing - has finally rolled out its cryptocurrency buying service to all of its customers in the US. Though the crypto service was set to launch in early 2021, due to high demand, Paypal is also increasing its weekly cryptocurrency purchase limit from $10,000 per week to $20,000 per week.

With central bank digital currency projects firing up all around the world, Deutsche Bank, the largest banking institution in Germany, said last week that it is confident CBDCs will replace cash in the future, while also warning US and European policymakers about the risks of trailing behind China.

Meanwhile, the likes of Russia, Argentina and Pakistan all took steps to address grey areas of their respective crypto stances last week.

While Russia's Ministry of Finance proposed new amendments to the country’s law on digital financial assets (to go into effect in January), lawmakers in Argentina are expected to propose a bill in parliament that will gives digital assets legal status. And finally, the central bank of Pakistan  confirmed that there is no cryptocurrency ban, while its SEC published a paper discussing cryptocurrency regulation in the country.

Below is our weekly roundup of industry and coin specific news. 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.

Biden confirms crypto-savvy Gary Gensler will lead financial policy transition team

• On Tuesday, it was confirmed that Gary Gensler will be leading the financial policy transition team for the US President-elect,Joe Biden.

• The appointment has raised hopes in the crypto world as Gensler currently teaches courses on blockchain technology and digital currencies at the MIT Sloan School of Management

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Galaxy Digital acquires 2 crypto firms, sees big wave of institutional demand for Bitcoin

• Galaxy Digital, the crypto merchant bank headed by Mike Novogratz, announced that it has acquired two crypto trading firms: Drawbridge Lending and Blue Fire Capital to help meet what he believes ‘will be an even bigger wave of institutional demand’.

• During the firm’s Q3 earnings call on Friday, Novogratz, reported net income of $44.3 million in the third quarter of 2020, up from a loss of $68.2 million in the year-ago period

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Bitcoin Cash has split into two new blockchains, again

• The Bitcoin Cash network split into two new blockchains yesterday, with miner action currently favouring the community-driven Bitcoin Cash Node (BCHN).

• At Copper, we temporarily switched off deposits and withdrawals of Bitcoin Cash for a monitoring period, which could last up to December 1st, 2020. During this two week period we will decide whether there is any need to support the less popular chain, and if so we will add the code to support it. Please get in touch with your account manager as soon if you have any questions or concerns.

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Latest Coin News

BTC

• Price Analysis: BTC tests critical support, correction to $15K incoming?

• Grayscale buys $240m in Bitcoin in largest capital raise week ever.

• Bitcoin climbs above $16,000 to its highest level since January 2018 as crypto rally pushes forward. 

• Price Analysis: ETH bulls stopped by $475 resistance, is $500 still in play?

• Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract tops $22.5m one week after launch.

• Nearly $360m in Bitcoin moved to Ethereum in October despite DeFi cool-off.

• Price Analysis: XRP bulls finally wake up and break above $0.27, what’s next?

• SEC should declare XRP a security, says Peter Brandt.

• Here’s why PayPal is not supporting fourth-largest crypto asset XRP.

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