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

After four tumultuous years as president, Donald Trump has been defeated by Joe Biden in the 2020 US Presidential election.

Despite Bitcoin leaping 17% last week to cross the $15,000 mark (nearing a 3-year-high), immediately after the election news, the price of BTC fell from $15,369 to $15,190. However, crypto market participants appear to be pretty encouraged by reports that crypto-friendly Gary Gensler is tipped to advise Biden on finance policy. Gary teaches blockchain at MIT, and has even had his students read the Bitcoin whitepaper as part of the curriculum.

The US publicly traded payments company, Square, blew past analysts’ expectations for its third-quarter earnings, sending the stock up double digits on Friday. Square's Cash App was a key driver of the strong results -  more than tripling its gross profits from a year ago, and made up almost half of the company’s total gross profit of $794 million.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the Hong Kong government published a consultation paper covering new rules that would ban retail investors from trading crypto assets – limiting access to professional investors with over HK$8m ($1.03m) in assets. The new rules also aim to force all crypto exchanges in Hong Kong to obtain licenses.

And finally, Brazil has become the latest country to announce a CBDC. On Thursday, Brazils’s Economy Minister, Paulo Guedes, made the announcement  during a ceremony celebrating the 100 millionth digital savings account opened at Caixa Economica Federal.

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.

Vitalik Buterin sends $1.4M of Ether in preparation for Ethereum 2.0 staking

• On Wednesday, Vitalik Buterin sent his first Ether for staking on the next iteration of the blockchain network.

• Buterin's 'VB2' address sent 100 transactions for 32 Ether each, all in totalling 3,200 units of the cryptocurrency.

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PayPal plans a much wider embrace of cryptocurrency, including Venmo use

• During an earnings call last Monday, PayPal CEO Dan Schulman provided fresh details about the company's recent embrace of cryptocurrencies, describing plans for shopping tools as well as potential partnerships with central banks.

• He noted: "This is just the beginning of the opportunities we see as we work hand-in-hand with regulators to accept new forms of digital currencies."

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U.S. officials seize 'more than $1 billion in bitcoin' they say was stolen from the Silk Road dark market

• The U.S. Justice Department has seized and is now seeking the forfeiture of thousands of Bitcoins tied to the now-defunct Silk Road dark web market, with the holdings valued in excess of $1bn.

• This is the largest seizure of cryptocurrency in the history of the Department of Justice.

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Latest Coin News

BTC

• Price Analysis: Bitcoin starts corrective decrease, why it could rally if it clears $15.3K.

• Bitcoin at $15K is now bigger than PayPal, Coca-Cola, Netflix, Disney.

• Family offices may now see Bitcoin as alternative to Gold: JPMorgan report.

• Price Analysis: ETH rebounds after 10% plunge, is $500 still in sight?

• Grayscale's Ethereum Trust hits $1 billion in assets under management.

• Ethereum market cap soared by more than 200% to $44.3bn.

• Price Analysis: XRP draws closer to $0.3.

• Ripple opens Dubai HQ as blockchain firm mulls leaving US.

• Ripple invests in Money Tap. 

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