Here’s what happened this week in Bitcoin in 99 seconds.
The forthcoming major exchange Bakkt announced the completion of their first funding round, which raised $182 million. Bakkt intends to cater to institutional interest in Bitcoin and other digital assets.
Concerns surfaced regarding crypto exchanges. Bitcoin investor, Trace Mayer, called for a “Proof of Keys” event on the 3rd of January. Users were prompted to withdraw their bitcoins from exchanges to test for full or fractional reserves. HitBTC froze certain client’s withdrawals ahead of the event. Other companies listed on the ProofOfKeys.com site, such as Bitfinex, Poloniex, Purse.io, Robinhood and Coinbase also blocked withdrawals or otherwise experienced issues during the “stress test”. This prompts questions regarding their ultimate solvency.
Bloomberg reported that at least one sector of the crypto economy was still seeing buoyant growth; the crypto lending sector. Such services allow crypto holders to borrow fiat against their coins, without having to cash out at the current low prices. There is also demand to borrow coins from short sellers.
On 3rd of January, users around the world celebrated Bitcoin’s 10th anniversary. Bitcoin has grown tremendously in its first decade of existence, from unknown software to a whole new asset class.
Finally, US online retailer Overstock announced that it will pay some of its 2019 Ohio state taxes in Bitcoin, becoming the first nationwide company to do so. Ohio now provides a facility for companies to pay tax with Bitcoin.
That’s what happened this week in Bitcoin. See you next week.