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The accused, Gutemberg Dos Santos, has been charged in an indictment and was extradited from Panama on Nov. 25.

Mining hardware manufacturer Canaan Creative reported a Q3 net loss of $12.7 million, or 54 cents per share, more than quadruple the size of Q2’s $2.38 million loss, or 10 cents per share.

Bitcoin bucked sluggish activity across broader markets, hitting all-time highs on several cryptocurrency exchanges during Monday morning’s trade session.

The digital currency traded as high as $19,873.23 a coin on Coinbase, while hitting all-time highs on Binance, Bitstamp, and Kraken. At last check, bitcoin was trading up about 5.8% on the day at $19,047.

Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down more than 1.4%. The price of gold was trading lower — adding to the losses bullion faced throughout November. Gold was trading down 0.47% at the time of writing at $1,782.

The divergence between gold and bitcoin  is striking, considering many investors have characterized the latter as a digital alternative to gold, which traditionally outperforms during periods of anxiety. Breakthroughs made by pharmaceutical firms on a Covid-19 vaccine appear to have sent gold’s price into a tailspin. 

“While there’s plenty of people that want to draw similarities between the two instruments, I think this divergence highlights how different they still are,” said Craig Erlam, an analyst at OANDA, in an email to The Block. 

“Bitcoin has done well since March and that may be linked to some belief that more stimulus is bullish but in the face of expectations being pared back and an improved economic outlook, it’s pushing record highs and I think it will probably go well beyond them,” he added. 

Vaccine news has also weighed on the US dollar. Despite enjoying a nice boost during Monday’s session, it is still trading down nearly 5% since the beginning of the year. 

© 2020 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

PLUS: Anonymous developers have forked a seemingly dead project to launch DeFi’s latest stablecoin.

Stablecoins “pose serious risks” according to Christine Lagarde, the head of the European Central Bank.

Her comments — which touched on the intersection of payments and technology — from November 30 come as the European Union moves closer toward approving the eventual creation of a wholly digital euro. Lagarde previously indicated that a yes-or-no decision would come in January, even as other institutions around the globe pursue central bank digital currency initiatives.

As she has before, Lagarde spoke about the digital euro as a complement to physical cash. The ECB leader also stressed how the the digital euro, if implemented, would help shore up “monetary sovereignty” in the region.

“It could be important in a range of future scenarios, from a decline in the use of cash to pre-empting the uptake of foreign digital currencies in the euro area,” she said, according to the prepared remarks. “Issuing a digital euro might become necessary to ensure both continued access to central bank money and monetary sovereignty.”

Adopting a loftier perspective, Lagarde went on to say: “A digital euro would also be an emblem of the ongoing process of European integration and ultimately help to unify Europe’s digital economies.”

On the topic of crypto-assets, Lagarde had this to say:

“The main risk lies in relying purely on technology and the flawed concept of there being no identifiable issuer or claim. This also means that users cannot rely on crypto-assets maintaining a stable value: they are highly volatile, illiquid and speculative, and so do not fulfil all the functions of money.”

Her comments were specifically pointed when she spoke about stablecoins.

“Although stablecoins could drive additional innovation in payments and be well integrated into social media, trade and other platforms, they pose serious risks,” she remarked, going on to say:

“If widely adopted, they could threaten financial stability and monetary sovereignty. For instance, if the issuer cannot guarantee a fixed value or if they are perceived as being incapable of absorbing losses, a run could occur. Additionally, using stablecoins as a store of value could trigger a large shift of bank deposits to stablecoins, which may have an impact on banks’ operations and the transmission of monetary policy.”

Lagarde also critiqued stablecoins issued by “global technology firms” — a not-so-subtle reference, perhaps, to Facebook’s Libra — and how they “could also present risks to competitiveness and technological autonomy in Europe, as they would attempt to leverage their competitive advantage and control of large platforms.”

© 2020 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The research arm of the New York-based asset manager now recommends bitcoin as part of an investment portfolio.

After nearly three years of waiting, bitcoin investors can celebrate the cryptocurrency reaching a new record high.

It’s no longer really news when bitcoin outperforms traditional markets, but November could prove a crucial month for the largest cryptocurrency. 

Ethereum’s mining difficulty — an indicator of competition among Ethereum miners, and hashrate — its computing power, have both reached new all-time highs.

These indicators suggest that more people want to mine ETH, as its price continues to surge, at around $600 a unit.

Ethereum’s mining difficulty has touched a new all-time high of 3,615 terahashes (TH), according to Etherscan, while its hashrate has touched 285 TH per second, according to data from Ycharts.

The key reason behind the surge in Ethereum’s mining difficulty and hashrate is increasing miner revenue, Thomas Heller, chief operating officer at crypto mining firm HASHR8, told The Block. “Ethereum mining revenue in MH/s [megahashes per second] has been increasing recently due to the bullish ETH price and also slightly higher ETH transaction fees,” said Heller.

Furthermore, Chinese industrial miners are driving the Ethereum mining activity, according to Dmitrii Ushakov, chief commercial officer at crypto mining farm BitRiver. “They have been accumulating GPU-based mining rigs since this year’s DeFi [decentralized finance] hype and ETH’s price appreciation — both of which have resulted in higher rewards for ETH miners,” said Ushakov.

Besides GPU, ASIC miners are also in demand, said Heller. “Innosilicon has been shipping the A10 Pro, which is an ASIC miner that can mine ETH. Until now, the A10 Pro 500 MH/s version has been purchased. In December, there will be an A10 Pro 720 MH/s with higher hashrate,” said Heller.

As more mining machines (both GPU and ASIC) get switched on, and if the ETH price continues its upward trajectory, the Ethereum hashrate and mining difficulty could increase further, said Heller.

Ushakov also expects these indicators to go further go up in the coming months.

It is worth noting that Ethereum mining is set to cease in the medium term as the network is moving toward a proof-of-stake model with developments around the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade.

The Eth2 upgrade is divided into multiple phases — the beacon chain, shard chains, and the docking — which are expected to run at least until 2022. After the final Eth2 launch, Ethereum mining will be sunsetted.

© 2020 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The cybersecurity specialist foresees a rise in crypto crime ahead in 2021, as the COVID-19 epidemic hits national economies.