Top Headlines
- Bitcoin’s price surged to over $16,300 this week, while taking a slight dip this morning to just below $16,000. The high this week hasn’t been seen since January 2018 (CNBC)
- PayPal’s US cryptocurrency services went live on Thursday, allowing for trading of up to $20K a week. The global arm of PayPal’s crypto services is set to launch in early 2021, along with crypto payments going live on its companion payments app Venmo (Coin Telegraph)
- Deutsche Bank Research released a report earlier this week backing the “digital cash revolution”, warning countries that are slow to develop digital currency policies may eventually be forced to adopt the policies and currencies of other countries as the race towards a viable central bank digital currency continues (Coin Telegraph)
Cryptocurrency Spotlight:
- The SEC’s Division of Investment Management is seeking public input on the application of the Custody Rule of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 to custodial services for digital assets by banks. Check out their statement from November 9th where they highlight the salient points of a letter from the Wyoming Division of Banking who is seeking approval to provide custodial services for digital assets (SEC.gov)
- The SEC seized $1.26B in fines from unregistered initial coin offerings this year, with over one-fourth of its collections coming from the $18.5M in fines levied against the Telegram Gram token sale (Coin Telegraph)
- Peninsula Visa, the US-based firm providing traditional visa and passport services, now allows for payment for services in cryptocurrency, becoming the first to do so in the country (Coindesk)
- BitPay, a cryptocurrency payment system, rolled out their payroll services system this week which allows for employers to pay its employees in cryptocurrency (Coindesk)
International Spotlight:
- Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank, believes the bank will reach a consensus on a digital euro early in 2021. In a conference this week, Lagarde dismissed the notion of the race to be first, instead highlighting the need for caution and thorough research before rollout (Coin Telegraph)
- The largest bank in Belarus has launched its crypto exchange services using Visa cards, a service open to customers in Russia and Belarus. The exchange will also allow for the trading of crypto against fiat currencies including the US dollar and the Euro (BTC Manager)