Growth & Product Launches

One trend we have seen within the crypto space throughout 2021 is growth, and this continued throughout the month of November. Bitcoin’s Taproot upgrade was finally activated in the middle of November and it appears institutional interest continues to increase. Twitter announced that it was launching a dedicated crypto team. Two Sigma, the quantitative hedge fund, announced it was hiring a crypto operations manager and Citigroup appointed a new head of digital assets for institutional clients. Several new products also launched. Three worth highlighting include: 1) Fidelity’s institutional Bitcoin custody service in Canada; 2) Osprey Fund’s NFT-focused investment vehicle; and 3) Switzerland’s Six Digital Exchange launch of a blockchain bond.

Bitcoin Trends

Although we saw Bitcoin’s price fall during November, institutions are still coming in to purchase the asset. For example, MicroStrategy bought over $414 million of Bitcoin. El Salvador also bought 100 more Bitcoins, and Morgan Stanley funds increased their exposure in Bitcoin through GBTC. Large capital raises have also continued to occur and ConsenSys closed a $200 million raise at a $3.2 billion evaluation.

Blockchains & DeFi

CME announced this month that it plans to launch micro Ether futures in December. Interest in Solana has also been growing. Grayscale launched a new trust dedicated to Solana, while Bloomberg and Galaxy Digital partnered to create a new index that tracks the price of Solana. Within the DeFi space, $31 million was stolen in a hack from MonoX Finance on Polygon and Ethereum. A DAO named ConstitutionDAO attempted to purchase a copy of the U.S. Constitution in a Sotheby’s auction, but was ultimately outbid by billionaire Ken Griffin.

The opinions expressed in the CrossTower Classroom are those of the author(s) and not necessarily that of CrossTower. We appreciate diverse perspectives of our employees and we thank them for having a voice.