Crypto Scoop: Bitcoin passes $23k, reaches new ATH

Bitcoin doesn't seem to be slowing down and that's good news for everyone. But that's not all; we've got more updates for you this week:

• BTC passes $23k
• Eth 2.0 staking surpasses target
• Coinbase is going public

BTC reaches yet another ATH as it passes $23,000

After the way 2020 has been for everyone, December sure knows how to lighten the mood. Earlier in the week, Bitcoin finally reached $20,000 after reaching a new ATH just 2 weeks before. But that was just the beginning. In a matter of hours, the price of the foremost cryptocurrency shot past $20k and set a remarkable record as it peaked well above $23,000 for the first time ever.

This is a massive achievement for Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency world and the global financial world as it shows that confidence in Bitcoin is growing among institutions and investors. As we noted earlier in the month, institutions have turned to Bitcoin as an alternative to traditional assets. More investors have come forward to reveal that they have also invested huge sums in Bitcoin.

The emergence of these whales have contributed significantly to the rise in the price of Bitcoin as it heads to the moon. As expected, other cryptocurrencies have also been affected as Ripple (XRP) gained up to 22% and Litecoin (LTC) went up 15%.

The wide adoption of Bitcoin indicates that predictions about Bitcoin coming up at the expense of Gold in the nearest future makes the future even closer than ever.

ETH 2.0 staking surpasses target...and counting

The first phase of the upgrade to the Ethereum network launched on the 1st of December. The criterion to launch was that 524,288 ETH must be staked. Apparently, the target was reached and Phase 0 - beacon chain launched successfully. However, that has not stopped staking in ETH 2.0. There is already over 1.5 million ETH staked which is over $1 billion at the current price of ETH.

As the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, this is another milestone in the crypto world and can be expected to open more opportunities for yet wider adoption of cryptocurrency and dApps in offering solutions in several other sectors. We can already see that surfacing as an analytics blockchain The Graph launched on Ethereum’s mainnet.

Coinbase is going public

The United States’ largest crypto exchange, Coinbase, filed with the SEC to go public. Coinbase’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) has been rumoured for months and the company finally made the announcement yesterday just after Bitcoin reached the new ATH.