DEEPER DIVE: Silvergate Bank made a name for itself providing hard-to-come-by U.S. dollar banking services for businesses that deal in cryptocurrency. Now the bank has applied for a New York trust license with the aim of providing custody and settlement for crypto. Full story
USA VS. GRIFFITH: Prosecutors appear to have a strong case against Virgil Griffith, the ethereum developer charged with conspiring to aid North Korea, legal experts say. CoinDesk's Nikhilesh De breaks down what's known about his case. Full story
DERIBIT DAILIES: The Deribit exchange will launch daily bitcoin index options in a bid to bring in new customers. The firm said the short term product is aimed at traders “with a short-term view based on for example macroeconomic data or events." Full story
CASA CHANGES: Bitcoin startup Casa is charging into 2020 with a shift in product strategy and a shuffled front office. The firm said it will ditch its hardware node in favor of bolstering its subscription service, while current head of product Nick Neuman is taking the helm as CEO. Full story
ETHER HOARDERS: Ethereum miners are hodling their ether tokens – a fact that may indicate high confidence in the project. The number of ETH tokens held by all ethereum mining pools is back near its all-time high of 1.69 million set in October, according to crypto market data platform Santiment. Full story
LINE DEFENSE: Bitcoin has bounced near a key support at $9,188. If the bulls continue to defend selling pressure around that level, a rally to $9,600 could be seen, as both daily and weekly technical charts are biased bullish. Full story
SYNTHETIX LINKS: On a special interview episode of The Breakdown, Nathaniel Whittemore talks with Sergey Nazarov and Kain Warwick, founders of Chainlink and Synthetix, respectively, about the collaboration between the projects and state of the crypto industry. Listen in
Silvergate settlements