Meet The Bitcoin Lovers In Corporate America

BITCOIN BREAKS OUT AND DOGE RECOVERS 

Bitcoin has continued to build on the momentum generated by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who last week tacitly endorsed the cryptocurrency by adding the leading cryptocurrency to his Twitter profile. Currently priced above $38,000, bitcoin is now trading at levels not seen since the middle of January. Part of this continued surge is likely due to Musk offering his first detailed comments on the asset. In a recent Clubhouse chat he said, “I am a supporter of bitcoin. I am late to the party but a supporter. I think bitcoin is on the verge of getting broad acceptance by conventional finance people.”

Also of note, dogecoin has regained momentum after a brief tumble earlier in the week. Specifically, it surged again Thursday as Elon Musk ended his break from Twitter with a slew of posts about it. Currently priced at $0.045, it is up 704% for the year. 

ANOTHER ATH FOR ETH, DEFI ASSETS SOAR

While Reddit darlings such as GameStop, AMC and Blackberry have come back to earth following their retail-trading driven surges last week, the price gains seen by ethereum and several decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens appears to be just getting started. Ethereum set multiple new records this week, growing by 25% over the last five days and 135% year-to-date to set a new high above $1,721.

But that is not all, this week several major DeFi tokens that are used to power decentralized exchanges and lending protocols have surged. Most notably, compound, uniswap, AAVE, kyber and ox have all set recent all-time highs.While some of this trading activity is rooted in bitcoin investors rolling some products into alternative assets that are outperforming the leading cryptocurrency this year,  much of this renewed focus is ideological in nature. Redditors who became frustrated with the trading restrictions imposed by Robinhood and other brokerages last week are taking a harder look and censorship-resistant trading platforms. 

Source: Messari. Prices as of 4:00 p.m. on February 5, 2021.

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BLOCKCHAIN WINS OVER BIG BUSINESS

This week Forbes released the 2021 Blockchain 50, a list of the biggest companies in the world making meaningful use of blockchain in their business to drive new growth, cut costs and improve efficiency. Household names on the list this year include Boeing, Honeywell, IBM, JPMorgan, Microsoft and the National Basketball Association. In all, this year’s list has 21 newcomers, including five from Asia, one from Australia and one from Africa. Notably absent from this year’s list: Google, which hasn’t progressed far beyond a limited blockchain search engine, and Facebook, which announced an ambitious token now called Diem in the summer of 2019, only to face widespread backlash. Finally, perhaps due to the fact that this year’s list is the first to be released during a crypto bull market, a record nine companies were included due to their specific involvement with bitcoin. 

VISA’S BITCOIN AMBITION GROWS

After partnering with 35 various bitcoin and cryptocurrency platforms in recent years, Visa has announced plans to help banks roll out bitcoin and cryptocurrency buying and trading services with a Visa crypto software program, set to launch later this year. A key partner will include Visa portfolio company and crypto custodian Anchorage, which last month became the first U.S. national “digital asset bank” after it was granted approval for a national trust charter from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). First Boulevard, a Kansas-based, Black-focused digital bank, will be the first to pilot the service.

ELSEWHERE

Crypto exchange Coinbase has chosen Nasdaq as its direct listing venue [The Block]

Crypto Startup Metal Pay Files for National Bank Charter [CoinDesk]

Here’s How Much Elon Musk’s Tweets Influence Bitcoin, Dogecoin Prices [Decrypt]