The Block
Quick Take Bitcoin hitting an all-time high above $80,000, spot bitcoin ETF approvals and Taylor Swift launching NFTs are among Bitwise’s predictions for 2024. The asset management firm also expects Coinbase and Ethereum’s revenue to double, more money to settle using stablecoins than Visa and AI assistants to start using crypto by the end of next year.
Quick Take The London-based blockchain firm processed the first live payments through its Sterling Fnality Payment System after previously delaying the launch.
Quick Take Ark Invest sold another 283,104 Coinbase shares on Wednesday — worth around $43 million — following the $13.4 million COIN it has already sold this week as the stock rose 7.8%. Ark also offloaded 45,864 Grayscale Bitcoin Trust shares ($1.6 million), coinciding with a 6.5% gain for GBTC yesterday as its discount to NAV reduced to the lowest level since July 2021.
Quick Take During a meeting on Wednesday, the agency voted to propose a rule called the “Protection of clearing member funds held by derivatives clearing organizations.”
Quick Take Ether will likely outperform bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in 2024, according to JPMorgan analysts. That prediction comes on the back of Ethereum’s EIP-4844 upgrade next year.
This first appeared in Frank Chaparro’s biweekly The Scoop Newsletter on Dec. 12. Sign up now.
Quick Take SEC Chair Gary Gensler didn’t seem like he wanted to talk about crypto on Wednesday after a meeting about the U.S. Treasury market.
Bitcoin’s price increased by almost 3% on Wednesday as the Federal Reserve held interest rates at the current range of 5.25%-5.50%, as expected.Major stock indices also made gains in early afternoon trading, after the announcement from the Federal Reserve.
Quick Take Dynamic Labs secured Series A funding from prominent backers including a16z crypto and Founders Fund.
Quick Take Yearn Finance said a faulty script wiped out 63% of its treasury, but user funds were not affected. Yearn is asking users who profited from the bug to return a “reasonable” amount to the protocol’s multisig.
