Market Summary

Bitcoin Price: $63,400.00 (-2.92%)
Ethereum Price: $4,563.78 (-1.36%)

Bitcoin has stalled, but here’s why pro traders still expect $80K by January

• Bitcoin price is hitting resistance while trading 7.75% below its all-time high, but derivatives data shows pro traders are still aiming for $80,000 by January.
• Data from on-chain analytics firm Glassnode shows that long-term investors have stopped net accumulating and are now diversifying into altcoins. According to analyst Willian Clemente, the recent net selling from that class of investors was the first in 6 months, signaling a “sell into strength” move.

President Biden signs infrastructure bill into law, mandating broker reporting requirements

• After months of scrutiny from both the United States Senate and House of Representatives, the infrastructure bill — criticized by many crypto advocates — is now officially the law of the land.
• In a ceremony in front of the White House on Monday, President Joe Biden signed the $1 trillion infrastructure bill before an audience of reporters, lawmakers and union workers. While the bipartisan legislation is aimed at providing funding for roads, bridges, internet access, solar panels, electric vehicle charging stations and other major infrastructure projects, lawmakers included language applicable to cryptocurrencies prior to its passage in both chambers of Congress.
• The bill as it was passed will implement tighter rules on businesses handling cryptocurrencies and expand the reporting requirements for brokers. The bill mandates that, going forward, digital asset transactions worth more than $10,000 be reported to the Internal Revenue Service. A group of senators originally proposed an amendment to the bill that would have clarified the crypto tax reporting requirements, but the proposal failed to get approval in August.

Crypto mining stocks dip as SEC issues subpoena for Marathon Digital mining facility

• The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has ordered crypto mining firm Marathon Digital Holdings to produce documents and communications for one of its mining facilities in Montana.
• According to a Monday filing with the SEC, Marathon Digital received a subpoena regarding an investigation into possible violations of the federal securities law related to its Hardin, Montana data center. In the third quarter of 2021, the SEC ordered the mining firm to produce documents and communications for the 100-megawatt facility, for which it had made arrangements to develop and stock with Bitcoin (BTC) miners in October 2020.

Maker founder Rune Christensen joins venture firm Dragonfly Capital

• Rune Christensen, the founder of stablecoin protocol MakerDAO, has joined venture capital investment firm Dragonfly Capital, the firm announced on Monday. 
• Christensen — who launched MakerDao in 2015 — is joining Dragonfly as a venture partner. Christensen will split his time between contributing to the MakerDao project and his work with Dragonfly, according to the firm.
• Dragonfly invested in Maker in 2019 and also has backed firms including 1inch, Compound, and Tagomi, the latter of which was acquired by Coinbase. 

VanEck’s bitcoin futures ETF to list tomorrow

• VanEck’s bitcoin futures-based exchange traded fund (ETF) is slated to list tomorrow, according to an announcement from the firm. 
• The VanEck Bitcoin Strategy ETF will launch under the ticker XBTF on Cboe exchange. VanEck’s product is touted as the lowest-cost bitcoin-linked ETF, since its net expense ratio is lower than competitors. It’s also been structured as a C-Corp, which the firm says may provide a “more efficient tax experience” for those holding long term.
• XBTF will primarily invest in CME bitcoin futures. The listing of a futures ETF comes just after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) denied the firm’s proposal for a physically-backed bitcoin ETF. The SEC extended its decision deadline as far as possible, soliciting industry feedback and continually punting the date, before finally denying VanEck’s rule change proposal last week.

NEAR Launches Nightshade Sharding, Paving the Way for Mass Adoption

• Today is a momentous day for the NEAR blockchain and the NEAR ecosystem: The launch of Simple Nightshade, the first step toward a fully sharded and secure blockchain.
• Today, the code for phase 0 was successfully deployed to the mainnet — it can take several hours or days for the code to be integrated by all network participants.
• This phase, nicknamed Simple Nightshade, will kickstart a year of changes and additions to the NEAR blockchain that when complete, will make it super-fast, incredibly secure, and capable of onboarding millions of users into the world of Web3 without skipping a beat.

Animoca Brands unveils plans for K-pop NFT metaverse

• Nonfungible tokens (NFT) continue to disrupt the mainstream entertainment industries, with NFT gaming firm Animoca Brands partnering with South Korean record label, talent agency and music production company Cube Entertainment to build a “K-pop music metaverse.”
• Announced on Monday, the partnership will see Animoca and Cube work together to create multimedia NFTs celebrating popular actors and K-pop musicians on Cube’s roster. The NFTs will feature images such as artist portraits and album art and also include digital sound sources such as full-length albums.