🏦 Traditional Finance Doubles Down

The line between traditional finance and crypto continues to blur with major moves this week:

  • Bank of Canada's Bitcoin Bet: The National Bank of Canada made a substantial indirect move into Bitcoin by acquiring 1.47 million shares of MicroStrategy, a position valued at roughly $273 million.

  • Wall Street's New Advice: In a significant shift, Bank of America is now advising its wealth management clients to consider allocating 1% to 4% of their portfolios to cryptocurrency, with formal recommendations for Bitcoin ETFs starting in January 2025.

  • Banks and Crypto Pilots: Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong confirmed the company is working with several major U.S. banks on pilot programs for stablecoins, custody, and trading, further signaling traditional finance's growing involvement.

⚖️ Regulatory Clarity Advances Globally

Two major economies took concrete steps to formalize their crypto frameworks:

  • UK Grants Legal Property Status: The United Kingdom passed a law formally classifying cryptocurrencies as legal property. This provides clear rules for ownership, inheritance, and recovery in legal disputes.

  • South Korea's Stablecoin Blueprint: South Korea is progressing with legislation that would require stablecoin issuers to be bank-led consortiums, with banks holding at least a 51% ownership stake.

🔄 Leadership and Security Shifts

  • New Leadership at Binance: Yi He, a company co-founder, has been named Co-CEO alongside Richard Teng as the exchange approaches 300 million users.

  • Upbit's Security Overhaul: Following a security breach, the South Korean exchange Upbit is forcing all users to generate new deposit addresses as it rebuilds its wallet system from the ground up.

📉 A Cautious Market Outlook

Despite institutional progress, market sentiment remains nervous. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index is at 21, indicating "Extreme Fear," a significant improvement from a record low of 10 hit after a major market drop in October. Analysts are divided on whether this is a mid-cycle reset or the start of a bear market.

The week ends with traders watching key central bank decisions—with potential rate cuts from the U.S. Federal Reserve and hikes from the Bank of Japan—that could pull global liquidity in different directions.

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