1) U.S. Treasury looking for crypto policy officers to tackle crimes in the industry.
The U.S. Treasury’s bureau, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has recently posted vacancies for two high-profile crypto positions. These vacancies are full-time and permanent. FinCEN wants the two crypto policy officers to “assist in the development of policy responses to these challenges”. FinCEN also made it clear that it expects new experts to perform “extremely complex and sensitive assignments” related to crypto which will include the issuance of advisories and other guidance to financial institutions.
2) Coinbase IPO coming soon and Messari valued Coinbase at $28 Billion.
On December 17, Coinbase announced that it has confidentially submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). Coinbase also wrote in their blog
The Form S-1 is expected to become effective after the SEC completes its review process, subject to market and other conditions
Following this announcement Messari, a research company valued Coinbase at $28 billion.
3) The Central Bank of Nigeria is pushing more Nigerians towards crypto adoption.
The Data from Paxful, the Bitcoin P2P marketplace indicates that Nigeria ranks second in trading volume after the United States on the platform. Since 2015, Nigerians have traded over 60,200 BTC on the Paxful platform amounting to about $566 million in volume over the period. The reason behind this increase in crypto adoption is stringent forex policies by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the decline of naira (the country’s fiat currency).
4) Goldman Sachs believes that gold and Bitcoin go hand in hand.
Goldman Sachs, one of the world’s biggest investment banks believes that Bitcoin and Gold can coexist. The bank wrote:
Gold’s recent underperformance versus real rates and the dollar has left some investors concerned that Bitcoin is replacing gold as the inflation hedge of choice. […] While there is some substitution occurring, we do not see Bitcoin’s rising popularity as an existential threat to gold’s status as the currency of last resort. The 50 percent weight in physical gold bullion in the portfolio will be reduced for the first time in several years by five percentage points with the money invested in Bitcoin. If there is a big drawdown in bitcoin from the current level, after the historic breakout above the $20,000 level, the intention will be to add to this position.
5) Rapper Megan Thee Stallion partners with Square’s Cash App for $1 million Bitcoin giveaway.
Square’s Cash App, the Bitcoin-friendly payments application, and Grammy-nominated rapper Megan Thee Stallion have teamed up on a giveaway of $1 million Bitcoin. Megan announced the promotional campaign via Twitter and instructed the people to post with the hashtag “#BITCOINMEG” to participate in the giveaway. The people shared the screenshot on Twitter after receiving 50,000 satoshis.