1) BitPay CCO thoughts on institutions holding Bitcoin.
Sonny Singh, Chief Commercial Officer at BitPay thinks that if in coming months Bitcoin hits $45,000 institutional investors will start selling it. In an interview with Bloomberg, Sonny Singh said
A lot of the institutional buyers bought in around $20,000, so that would be my floor for how far Bitcoin could go down. All those buyers that bought in, they said ‘Oh were into Bitcoin now for a three to five-year time horizon,’ which is great, but I think if Bitcoin hits $45,000 next month or so, they’re going to say, ‘wow we just made 2x, you know, we don’t need that three-year horizon anymore, let’s start selling some.
2) HDBank has become the first Vietnamese bank to issue letters of credit with blockchain technology.
HDBank, a Vietnamese bank has taken a step towards its goal of being a “Happy digital bank” by deploying blockchain to issue letters of credit. This letter of credit was issued to a local fiber importer and a Taiwanese yarn manufacturer with the L/C advising bank in Taiwan. This step will be beneficial as a letter of credit issued with the help of blockchain will offer a higher level of security and a permanent record of the transaction.
3) Italian Banking Association to develop an experimental digital euro.
According to the the announcement by Italian Banking Association (ABI) – ABI Lab, a Banking Research and Innovation Center is working towards developing an experimental digital euro. The research team will keep two things in mind one being the technical feasibility and the other is central bank digital currency programmability to create a distinction from existing electronic payment methods.
4) In 2020, Ripple co-founder sold XRP worth $400 million.
Jed McCaleb, Ripple co-founder has sold XRP worth $400 million in 2020. He has sold 1.2 billion XRP throughout the year at an average price of $0.34 per coin. McCaleb had received 9.5 billion XRP as a co-founders reward when he left Ripple Labs in 2014 and had also signed an agreement with Ripple Labs that limits the amount of XRP he can sell per week.
5) The central bank of The Kyrgyz Republic has drafted two bills to regulate crypto sector.
National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic has opened two bills related to crypto to public discussion. “On the Processing of Cryptocurrencies” and “On amendments to legislative acts in the field of virtual assets,” are open for comments and concerns till 21 February 2021. The Kyrgyz central bank also claimed that it would start working on drafting cryptocurrency regulations on November 13.