Cryptocurrency asset manager Grayscale has had a record-breaking 2019, with over $600 million coming in. Most of the funds came from hedge funds and other institutions that are even gaining exposure to more than just bitcoin.

Out of the over 340,000 ether stolen from South Korean cryptocurrency exchange UPbit, an estimated $3.2 million – 20,000 ETH – have already been laundered through small transactions sent to other exchanges.

Uzbekistan is seemingly trying to centralize the nation’s crypto mining power by creating a national mining pool that will see crypto miners pay standard electricity rates, instead of higher rates that will cut their profitability if they use other mining pools.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Crypto Asset Manager Posts Record-Breaking Year with over $600 Million in Investments
• $3.2 Million Worth of Ether from the UPbit Hack Have Reportedly Been Laundered
• Uzbekistan Is Looking to Launch a National Cryptocurrency Mining Pool

At the time of writing, bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $8,922.94 (3.33%) with a daily Top Tier volume of $2.50 billion. As for ether (ETH), it is trading at $171.56 (6.63%) with a daily Top Tier volume of $675.14 million. The MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 10 Index is currently tracking at 3,162.05 (5.38 %).

Crypto Asset Manager Posts Record-Breaking Year with over $600 Million in Investments

Cryptocurrency asset manager Grayscale Investment brought in over $600 million from investors last year, according to its recently released “2019 Digital Asset Investment Report.” The report notes that in total the firm has brought in about $1.17 billion.

The crypto asset manager’s investor base grew by 24% in 2019, with its new clients investing a total of $146.9 million. 36% of Grayscale’s clients now allocate their funds to more than one of its products, and 71% of the total amount invested last year came from hedge funds and other institutions.

Speaking to TheBlock, a Grayscale spokesperson said:

“As the largest digital currency asset manager, we feel that our numbers are indicative of broader market sentiment and institutional flows into digital currency.”

In Q3 and Q4 of last year, Grayscale saw quarterly investments of over $225 million, with its bitcoin trust fund alone bringing in $193.8 million in the last quarter of the year.

$3.2 Million Worth of Ether from the UPbit Hack Have Reportedly Been Laundered

A total of $3.2 million worth of ether stolen from South Korean cryptocurrency exchange UPbit in November of last year have already been laundered through small transactions sent to various other cryptocurrency exchanges.

According to a new report, a total of 20,520 ETH out of the total 342,000 stolen ETH have been laundered, which means around 6.4% of all funds were successfully withdrawn by the hackers. The report links the address that received the stolen funds to a number of small transactions going to other cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, Bitrue, Huobi, HitBTC, Bitfinex, and more.

Patrick Kim, the president of Uppsala Security, the firm behind the Sentinel Protocol, noted the organization believes these transactions were meant to launder the funds, and added:

“We believe that the hackers continue to launder money through exchanges without any sanctions standing in their way.”

UPbit has said it’s looking for as much help as it can get to stop the hackers from laundering the funds, and only recently reopened ether deposits and withdrawals.

Uzbekistan Is Looking to Launch a National Cryptocurrency Mining Pool

Uzbekistan is reportedly looking to launch its own national cryptocurrency mining pool. As well as a cryptocurrency exchange to accompany it. The move is set to bring crypto miners our of the shadows and attract foreign investors.

According to news.bitcoin.com, citing local news outlets, a government body under the President of Uzbekistan, the National Agency for Project Management (NAPM), has revealed at a conference its plans for the cryptocurrency and blockchain sector this year.

The national mining pool is set to consolidate the mining power of both domestic and foreign miners. Uzbekistan’s miners have, according to a government decree, to pay a higher electricity rate which brings their profits down. If they use the soon-to-be-launched mining pool, they’ll pay normal rates to “encourage participation” in the pool.

The accompanying digital asset exchange, dubbed Uznex, is based in the country’s capital, Tashkent, and will be operated by the South Korean Kobea Group. The trading platform’s website is still in beta and currently only has a few trading pairs.

Flipside Friday

Introducing the Flipside Crypto Disparity Ratio, a handy tool aimed at helping you see which cryptoassets are most under and overvalued. Flipside scores cryptoassets based on a standardized ratio between their market capitalization and their FCAS ratings. Scoring over 1 indicates the asset is overvalued, while scoring below 1 indicates it’s undervalued.

Among the undervalued tokens we find Polymath, a blockchain-based system that incentivizes participants to collaborate and launch financial products, and Storj, a decentralized cloud storage platform allowing anyone to rend idle hard drive space and earn tokens doing so.

On the overvalued side we find assets like the once-popular cat meme cryptocurrency MonaCoin, which has even been used to buy land in 2014.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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