You can read the Digest here:

• recovers from “winter” to set new monthly high, XRP Closes in on 5th.

• Sequoia invests $450 Million in Polygon, KPMG expands BTC/Ether.

• Cash App enables Lightning Network, Meta freezes Novi digital wallet.

• Google (NASDAQ) Cloud includes crypto mining threat detection technology.

Bitcoin Recovers from “Winter” to Set New Monthly High, XRP Closes in on 5th

Continuing its strong run that gathered momentum over the weekend, Bitcoin’s value has gained by an additional 5% to rise to its highest level in over a month. Bitcoin’s recent gains saw its price peak at $45,300, a level last reached on January 5th.

With Bitcoin now stabilizing at around the $43,800 mark, some analysts have suggested that sentiment around the world’s largest crypto may be transitioning to being bullish. Bitcoin gained 15% in the past week to help the crypto market cap recover the $2 trillion mark.

This is the 24 hour chart of Bitcoin’s price (BTC). Source: Tradingview

One of the main beneficiaries of the rally has unquestionably been Ripple’s XRP. In the 24 hour period, XRP’s price has increased by 13%. That brings the total gain to 40%. The rally saw XRP hit a new 30-day high of $0.911.

This is the seven-day price chart of (XRP). Source: Tradingview

The explosive price shift of Ripple’s XRP has seen its market cap reach $41 billion, leading to it overtaking both (SOL) and (ADA) to become the 6th largest cryptocurrency. XRP has only one more competitor to regain its spot in the top five cryptos according to market capital.

Flipsider:

• Several analysts, including Noelle Acheson, the head of market insights at Genesis, are uncertain about Bitcoin’s recent gains, cautioning that it may simply be a “bounce.”

Sequoia Leads $450M Polygon Investment. KPMG Adds BTC & Ether

Polygon, a Layer-2 scaling company, raised $450 million to increase its portfolio. Sequoia Capital supported the round, along with 40 other major VC companies like SoftBank and Tiger Global.

Polygon will use the money raised to strengthen its position in scaling Ethereum and build a stronger developer community. Polygon plans to use this funding boost in order to facilitate mass adoption of Web3.0 applications.

KPMG Canada is the latest public company to incorporate Bitcoin and Ethereum into its balance sheets. To maintain zero carbon transactions, the firm integrated carbon offsets.

In an official press statement, KPMG revealed that the investment reflected their “belief that institutional adoption of crypto assets and blockchain technology will continue to grow and become a regular part of the asset mix.”

Flipsider:

• Tesla (NASDAQ), the biggest and primary investor in Bitcoin, has reported a loss of $101 Million on The company’s Bitcoin assets for 2021.

Why you should care

Venture capital firms are still investing heavily in crypto and blockchain. They believe that cryptocurrency will be the key to revolutionizing finance in the future.

Cash App Enables Lightning Network, Meta Freezes Novi Digital Wallet

Cash App officially launched the feature less than one month after it announced its intent to incorporate the Bitcoin Lightning Network as a Layer-2 scaling solution. Cash App announced that users could now send Bitcoin via its mobile app.

Cash App users can send BTC to Lightning addresses or any other on-chain BTC address. As it currently stands, not all users will be able utilize the benefits of the Bitcoin Lightning Network, as Cash App announced that “at this time New York residents aren’t eligible for Lightning,”

Flipsider:

• While Jack Dorsey’s payment service has applied an exciting upgrade, Mark Zuckerberg’s Novi digital walletMeta has placed a freeze on the project.
• Novi was initially developed to work in tandem with then-Facebook’s Diem stablecoin. But, thanks to the Diem is now closed CommissionMeta also closed down Novi Wallet as a result o regulatory backlash.