Bitcoin Daily: Coinbase Migrates $5B In Crypto To New, Safer Platform; Bitcoin Surges 10 Pct In Mid-Week Push

Bitcoin might be making a comeback. The crypto saw a 10 percent increase on Wednesday (Dec. 19) morning to reach a high of $3,929.10.

This latest surge brought bitcoin’s three-day gains to more than 22 percent. And it wasn’t the only digital currency to get a boost: XRP soared 16 percent, and ether increased 13 percent.

Still, CoinFi CEO Timothy Tam warned that it isn’t exactly time for cryptocurrencies to “breath a sign of relief.”

“If anything, it proves speculation still dominates and most — not all, but most — are not trading in reality,” Tam said in an interview with CNBC. He added that some investors have been patiently waiting for the market to bottom out.

“It’s certainly a hell of a lot more cost efficient to buy now,” he added. “The hope is that the market has culled jumpy retail investors and, as regulators move in, we start to see some much needed stability.”

In other news, as it plans to expand the number of digital assets on its platform, Coinbase has moved around $5 billion worth of retail traders’ crypto assets into its upgraded storage model.

Phillip Martin, Coinbase’s head of security, told CoinDesk that the process took roughly four months to plan.

“This was a fundamentally new architecture from the ground up,” said Martin. “Regulators and auditors were involved at every stage … One of the biggest things we were worried about is that we don’t move the market with this event, which is why we went to such lengths to coordinate with regulators and manage media speculation around the movements.”

And CoinList is turning “CoinList Build” into a product, which will allow blockchain startups to easily create online hackathons to connect with developers.

Its first hackathon with P2P ethereum exchange 0x will run from January 10 to February 7, with 0x offering $50,000 worth of its token as prizes to get people to sign up.

CoinList believes that online hackathons can be mutually beneficial for both startups and developers. “They are democratized, anyone can participate, you don’t have to travel,” CoinList President Andy Bromberg told CoinDesk. “It’s a chance to get a bunch of people to build on top of a platform.”