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Bitcoin miners made roughly $521 million in revenue during November — a significant jump over the previous month’s figure.

According to data collected by The Block Research, the November number represented a 47.9% increase compared to October’s $352.57 in total Bitcoin miner revenue.

Generally speaking, miners earn money by successfully creating the next block of transactions, earning both the built-in subsidy — currently 6.25 BTC — as well as the combined fees paid alongside the transactions included in the block. Of the $521 million earned in November, nearly $55 million came in the form of transaction fees.

For more data-driven details about the month of November, read The Block Research’s by-the-numbers crypto data breakdown.

© 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.

Bitcoin is gaining legitimacy as an asset class — at least according to Laurence Fink, CEO of investment management firm BlackRock.

Fink said during a panel discussion Tuesday with former Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney that growing interest in bitcoin could indicate that it will eventually have a place in the global financial system. Fink has long been interested in blockchain technology but has historically been skeptical of Bitcoin’s legitimacy.

During the final minutes of the question and answer section, Fink and Carney turned their discussion to digital currencies. Fink said BlackRock has seen considerable growth in interest in bitcoin, in the form of skyrocketing search volume on its website. Bitcoin seems to have “caught the imagination” of many people, which could reflect growing adoption, he said.

On the other hand, it’s still a “thin market” that remains untested, and its staying power will depend on scale, he said. “We have to go through many markets to see if it’s going to be permanently real.”

Both Carney and Fink said they see digital currencies as an immense opportunity to bring down costs of payments. Digital currency may also have a “real impact” on the U.S. dollar as a reserve, said Fink.

© 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.

Sifchain, a yet-to-launch decentralized exchange (DEX) protocol, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding.

The round was facilitated through a simple agreement for future tokens (SAFT) sale, Sifchain project leader Jazear Brooks told The Block. A SAFT is an investment contract that promises the delivery of tokens at a future date.

Sifchain’s SAFT round was led by NGC Ventures, with participation from Alameda Research, Mechanism Capital, Bitscale, and others.

The protocol is being built on the Cosmos network, and it will be interoperable with several other blockchains, including Ethereum and Bitcoin, said Brooks. “Mainnet has Ethereum compatibility. Other bridges will be added over time. We are targeting a cadence of 4 a month, starting in Q2 2021,” he said.

Sifchain’s “omni-chain” model is going to be the protocol’s competitive edge, according to Brooks. “There are no other projects even targeting omni-chain. There are a couple of independent projects targeting cross-chain with Ethereum, but none trying to make omni-chain a standard.”

Sifchain plans to release its mainnet next month. By March or April, it plans to add margin trading and limit order features. Brooks said the Sifchain development team has over a dozen engineers with prior experience working at firms like Coinbase, Cosmos, Polkadot, Tezos, and Thorchain, among others. 

© 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.