The Daily: Bitcoin Posts Record Volume, Ledger Plans Major Update

The news is bullish in this edition of the The Daily, mirroring the mood of the crypto markets. We’ll start by delving into BTC’s record-breaking day for trading volume and then examine a couple of stories that suggest 2019 is poised to get off to a very positive start.

Also read: Only Sharks Will Feed on the Crypto Market’s Elusive Price Bottom

BTC Posts Record Daily Volume

It’s not just the price of bitcoin – both cash and core – that’s been shooting up this week – volume has followed suit. In fact, the real headline about this week’s price rally isn’t BCH doing a 3x or BTC passing and then holding the $4,000 mark. Rather, it’s the significant increase in trading volume that occurred on Dec 20, which some traders have taken as evidence of a full reversal. That’s right, the bottom may finally be in – though no one’s willing to publicly make that call just yet it seems.

Crypto Quantamental noted that the $2.26 billion of BTC traded on Thursday, Nov. 20 was the highest recorded in the cryptocurrency’s history. Compared to previous days when BTC was trading in the $3,500-$4,500 bracket, yesterday’s BTC volume was greater by a factor of 3-4x. Regardless of which way BTC moves next, it’s fair to say that interest in the crypto market has been fully restored. BCH has also been on a tear, as this graphic by The Tie shows, comparing the cryptocurrency’s market cap to that of BSV and LTC this week.

Looking back at Twitter activity since the start of the month, the sentiment analysis platform noted that “while indicative tweet volume (# of tweets that contribute to sentiment score) peaked for both BCH and BSV on Dec. 7, BSV has basically been completely flat as the amount of twitter conversation around BCH has trended upwards. It’s safe to assume BCH’s astonishing growth over the past three days may have contributed to that interest.

Ledger Schedules Major Firmware Update

French hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger has planned its biggest upgrade yet to its Nano S devices. Version 1.5, scheduled for release in early January, will feature new hashes, signatures and derivation schemes, enabling the wallet to support new cryptocurrencies. These updates will be accompanied by a slew of security improvements including:

Full redesign of the arithmetic architecture

Improved MCU genuine check (firmware attestation)

PIN code implementation improved for better resistance to hardware attacks

Hardening of the PIN code against various hardware and side channel attacks

In the arms race hardware manufacturers are engaged in, the biggest winners are consumers, who now have a wide range of increasingly robust hardware wallets to choose from.

Virtual Land Goes up in Smoke

47 million mana tokens have now been burnt in Decentraland’s second land auction which ends over the weekend. This equates to around $2.5 million of tokens destroyed, in return for purchasing plots of land in the virtual world. With the price of each parcel dropping ever closer to its lowest possible price of 1,000 mana over the weekend, a bidding frenzy is suspected. Just 6,000 of the 9,300 parcels available a week ago are left, with nonfungible.com recording an average price per 10x10m parcel of $850.

What are your thoughts on today’s news tidbits as featured in The Daily? Let us know in the comments section below.

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