ETH ENVY? The bitcoin community may soon have its own version of ethereum’s flagship decentralized finance (DeFi) platform. Money on Chain, a startup currently converting into a nonprofit trust, launched a DeFi platform based on the bitcoin sidechain Rootstock (RSK). The trust mimics MakerDAO’s Maker Foundation, which oversees the governance of a loan system with $330 million-worth of “locked-in” crypto collateral. Full story
TWITTER, DECENTRALIZED: Jack Dorsey's latest foray into decentralized technology could be a harbinger of a radical shift in social media infrastructure.The Twitter and Square CEO will support an independent team of five open source architects, engineers and designers to develop an “open and decentralized standard” for social media. “The goal is for Twitter to ultimately be a client of this standard,” Dorsey said. Full story
DUTCH COURAGE: Dutch banking multinational ING is developing technology for crypto custody. The move, if launched as a service, would likely make ING the first major bank to offer secure crypto storage. Full story
STILL SHORT: The liquidator for the collapsed New Zealand-based crypto exchange Cryptopia has retrieved nearly $5 million on balance since the platform was hacked for possibly $16 million in January. In its latest report, accounting firm Grant Thornton New Zealand detailed that it actually recovered $7.2 million from May to November. However, various expenses amounted to $2.4 million. Full story
AUTO PAYOUTS: Equilibrium has self-funded a $17.5 million insurance policy for its EOSDT stablecoin. CEO Alex Melikhov said the token is backed by smart contracts that pay out to consumers if the dollar-pegged token crashes through its collateralized floor. Security comes in the form of a doomsday reserve totaling 6.5 million EOS tokens. Full story
BRIEF RELIEF? Bitcoin has potential for a small price bounce after hitting two-week lows around $7,070 early on Thursday. However, a UTC close above $7,870 is still needed to confirm a short-term bullish reversal. Acceptance below support at $7,087 would open the doors for a re-test of recent lows near $6,500. Full story
CRYPTO CHANGES: The topic of today's Markets Daily podcast is sea changes in the crypto industry. First, Libra silently updated its white paper, dropping its "investment token" model. Second, Circle has become the latest firm to make staff cutbacks, a trend that also includes Chainalysis and ethereum incubator ConsenSys. Listen now
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