Twas the week before Christmas, and (as usual) excitement was stirring all through the (crypto) land.

Elon Musk, the eccentric billionaire blessed with an army of fans more suited to a rock star than a tech entrepreneur, caused the price of Dogecoin to spike by approximately 20% yesterday. How? By simply tweeting ‘Doge’. Musk then went on to engage with MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor about the possibility of converting “large transactions” of Tesla's balance sheet into Bitcoin.

In an article that triggered a fierce debate on Twitter, the Daily Beast reported on Tuesday that the White House counsel office has been reviewing the documents related to Ross Ulbricht's case, founder of Silk Road. President Trump is reportedly weighing whether he should give the jailed founder a pardon.

Last week, the FCA  published a temporary registration regime to allow cryptoasset firms which have applied to be registered with the regulator to continue operations until 9 July 2021. Owing to a pandemic backlog, the financial watchdog was unable to process firms’ applications by their original deadline.

The regulator is now urging all UK cryptoasset consumers to check if the firm they use is on the FCA’s register, or on the regulator’s new list of firms with temporary registration. If they are not listed and the firm is not entitled to continue trading after 10 January 2021,  consumers are advised to withdraw their funds immediately. Copper is one of the 91 firms featured in the list of firms with a temporary registration.

Finally, as we approach December 25th, we want to wish all of our readers and clients a very merry Christmas. Stay safe, stay well ✌️

Below is our weekly roundup of industry 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.

Top stories of the week

Coinbase announces IPO in a milestone for the crypto industry

Coinbase announced on Thursday that it has filed a draft S-1 registration statement with the SEC, confirming rumoured plans to go public. The company’s debut was expected, having been reported earlier in the year. Coinbase also recently shuffled its board to include venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and Google veteran Gokul Rajaram along with former Cisco CFO Kelly Kramer in what appeared to be final preparations to go public.

In its IPO announcement, which came in a company blog post, Coinbase did not provide details about how it would structure its offering. Business Insider reported Friday that Coinbase is looking to Goldman Sachs to handle its public filing, but no additional details were provided.

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$1bn in Bitcoin and Ether: One River hedge fund to increase holdings from $600m

One River Asset Management, a hedge fund specialising in volatility bets, has invested over $600 million into Bitcoin, and committed to holding over $1 billion in both BTC and ETH by early 2021.

According to Bloomberg Eric Peters, the CEO of One River Asset Management, said in an interview the firm is looking to seize on the growing interest in crypto among institutional investors, The firm also joined forces with Alan Howard, the co-founder of Brevan Howard Asset Management.

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CME announces Ether futures contracts

CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, announced it intends to launch Ether futures starting February 8, 2021, pending regulatory review. The new contract will be cash-settled, based on the CME CF Ether-Dollar Reference Rate, which serves as a once-a-day reference rate of the US dollar price of Ether.

Ether futures will be listed on Feb. 8, more than three years after Bitcoin futures went live.

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In case you missed it...

⚡️ LINKSWAP hits $20M value locked as new 'farmers' boost YFL price outlook. Read more

⚡️ France approves new cryptocurrency measures to fight anonymous transactions. Read more

⚡️ PornHub turns to crypto after Visa, Mastercard bow out. Read more

⚡️ Banca Generali buys $14 million stake in Bitcoin wallet Conio. Read more

⚡️ Polkastarter’s IDO platform launches SpiderDAO token. Read more

⚡️ OSL secures license in Hong Kong. Read more

⚡️ Microstrategy may soon hold upwards of 0.4% of all Bitcoin. Read more

⚡️ Japanese financial group SBI acquires cryptocurrency trading firm B2C2. Read more

⚡️ The Nexus Mutual hacker is now asking for a $2.6m ransom. Read more

⚡️ US financial giant American Express enters the cryptocurrency market. Read more

⚡️ 'BAM!' Tether celebrates as USDT market cap passes $20 billion. Read more

⚡️ FBI to reform virtual currency practices following DoJ recommendations. Read more

⚡️ Robert Kiyosaki: We will soon see $50k for Bitcoin. Read more

⚡️ Open interest in Bitcoin derivatives hit new highs this week. Read more

⚡️ Morgan Stanley's head of digital asset markets says DeFi is poised to keep its momentum in 2021. Read more

Copper news

What Bitcoin’s new ATH means for the ‘digital gold’ debate

With Bitcoin soaring past $20,000 last week to eclipse its prior historical record, ‘Bitcoin vs Gold’ is in the midst of another fiery round of debate across online forums and boardrooms worldwide. Our CEO Dmitry Tokarev claims that Bitcoin 'fuses the benefits of technology and gold', and is therefore more superior.

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Q&A: Tyler Kenyon, marketing director at global crypto custodian Copper

In an interview with Blockchain Asset Review - an outlet focusing on blockchain and crypto developments in Asian markets - our marketing director Tyler Kenyon discusses in depth how Copper is helping eliminate many of the challenges facing crypto hedge funds and exchanges.

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