News

Bitcoin Reaches New High As MicroStrategy Prepares To Join Nasdaq 100 (And More!)

I’m WendyO from The Street and I talk about everything crypto every day, And here is the top crypto news you might have missed for the week of December 16th, 2024.

First, let's cover some Bitcoin price action. Last week, Bitcoin opened at $101,00, and had a swing wick low to $94,000 and closed at $104, and earlier this week, we hit a new all time high of $108,100!

Ethereum has been pretty stagnant around the $3800 area, and most other altcoins have been stable.

Now for some Bitcoin news. MicroStrategy bought an additional 15,350 BTC, bringing its total holdings to 439,000 BTC, which is currently worth around $45 billion. And with 439,00 BTC, Microstrategy is now holding around 2% of the total Bitcoin supply.

Also, $MSTR will soon be joining the Nasdaq 100, becoming the first ever Bitcoin-focused company to be listed.

There’s been some chatter of a Bitcoin strategic reserve on day on of the Trump Presidency, according to a Forbes article, and here are some of the key points. Trump plans U.S. bitcoin strategic reserve to stay ahead of global crypto adoption. A Bitcoin reserve could counter U.S. debt crisis and dollar collapse concerns. A hypothetical US Bitcoin reserve could cover 44% of the national debt by 2050. And, Cynthia Lummis’ Bitcoin Act proposes the U.S. buy 1 million bitcoins over a five year period.

Russia is also exploring a Bitcoin reserve after Putin's recent praise of crypto, and there is talk of Japan, Russia and the EU following suit. (I think we will see a lot of other countries doing this too.)

Now let’s get into Ripple and XRP, because there have been some massive updates this week. First, Ripple’s new stablecoin RLSUD officially launched on December 17th. It’s a USD-denominated stablecoin, fully backed by dollar deposits, government bonds and cash equivalents. It launched under the NYDFS limited purpose trust company charter, ensuring high regulatory standards for stability and trust. Initially it is going to be available on platforms like Uphold, Bitso, and MoonPay, but be very careful of scams and impersonators! RLUSD is designed for seamless integration with DeFi protocols and global financial use cases. Plus, Ripple Payments will utilize RLUSD for global payments in 2025, supporting $70b in payments volume.

XRP will be used to help with liquidity, and in order to use RLUSD on the XPRL, you will reportedly need a small balance of XRP, similar to using ETH as gas on the Ethereum blockchain. (Some people believe this will boost XRP price.) In similar news, Anchorage Digital received approval from the NYDFS for a BitLicense. Anchorage Digital is a crypto platform for institutions, and with the BitLicense, it can now operate and offer its services in New York State.

Next we have some bullish news on HBAR and LINK! Hedera adopted the Chainlink data standard to accelerate DeFi and tokenized RWA adoption. Chainlink Data Feeds and Proof of Reserve are now live on Hedera, and the Chainlink Data Feeds will provide high-quality, decentralized, and tamper-proof price data. Bascially, without Chainlink, defi does not exist.

Did your claim the PENGU airdrop? PENGU, the official token of the Pudgy Penguins ecosystem is now live on Solana. Let’s cover the claim process as you might be eligible. Holders of Pudgy Penguins, Lil Pudgys, Rogs, and SBTs have 88 days to claim tokens before the unclaimed ones are burned. Simply go to the correct Pudgy Penguins socials, connect your wallet to the airdrop checker and claim your airdrop! OG Ethereum users may also be eligible for the airdrop, so check all of your old Phantom and Metamask wallets!