First Mover: Bitcoin Tops $17K as Scaramucci Makes Entrée, Ethereum Meets Rival
Bitcoin climbed above topped $17,000 early Tuesday for the first time since January 2018, pushing this year’s remarkable rally to 137% on a year-to-date basis. Source: TradingView
Bitcoin’s strong rally continues with demand outstripping supply amid the heightened expectations of swift global economic recovery on potential coronavirus vaccines.
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Anthony Scaramucci’s $9.2B fund-of-hedge-funds SkyBridge Capital seeks exposure to digital assets including altcoins (CoinDesk)
Coinbase goes down as bitcoin nears $17K (CoinDesk)
Galaxy Digital gets initial approval for new bitcoin fund in Canada (CoinDesk)
China’s crypto miners struggle to pay power bills as regulators clamp down on OTC desks (CoinDesk)
Cryptocurrency custodian Anchorage applies to U.S. regulator OCC to convert to national bank charter from South Dakota-based trust company (CoinDesk)
Israeli startup discovers loophole in DeFi lending platform MakerDAO’s collateralized debt positions market (CoinDesk)
Binance discontinues U.K. pound-linked stablecoin, calling it just an “experiment” (CoinDesk)
Decentralized exchange Uniswap and stablecoin tether (USDT) dominate the Ethereum network, taking up over 35% of transactions (CoinDesk):
Total daily transactions on the Ethereum network the past three years. Source: Glassnode
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The latest on the economy and traditional finance
Citigroup says U.S. dollar could tumble 20% in 2021 (Bloomberg)
America’s zombie companies have racked up $1.4T of debt (Bloomberg)
Some 13M U.S. workers enrolled in emergency benefit programs that expire Jan. 1; Deutsche Bank estimates income could drop by $150B in first quarter, causing weaker consumer spending that would shave 1 percentage point off economic output (WSJ)
Ultra-low U.S. mortgage rates, thanks to easy Federal Reserve monetary policy, has allowed homeowners to refinance, reducing monthly payments and freeing up cash (Bloomberg)
Austerity nowhere in view as European Bank of Reconstruction and Development’s chief economist predicts a half-century repayment schedule for coronavirus debt (WSJ)
Japan now offering 0.1 percentage-point interest-rate sweeteners to incentivize consolidation in barely profitable banking sector (WSJ)
U.S. consumers flush with cash after paying down debt, helped in part by stimulus from the government (Bloomberg)
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