The price of bitcoin (BITCOMP) and ethereum (ETH-X)has rebounded sharply over the weekend, climbing more than 10% overnight, following last week’s sell-off.

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Bitcoin, which had fallen more than 20% from its peak, rebounded 10% to trade near $53,000 this morning, while ethereum - which had held its ground better than bitcoin - is now trading just off record peaks after a similar jump in price.

The gains for the world’s largest two cryptoassets follow a tough sell-off last week which took some of the froth out of the market.

Nonetheless, a split between the two is starting to emerge. Last week the Bitcoin Dominance Index, which measures BTC’s market capitalization relative to the broader cryptoasset market, reached a low of 49.4% on Thursday, according to CoinMarketCap. At the beginning of 2021, it was at 70.7%.

Meanwhile, ethereum has risen from 11% to nearly 15%, since the start of 2021, while binance coin has also seen its share of the overall market grow steadily, from 0.7% to 4.2%. 

Binance launches new stock tokens for Apple and Microsoft

Binance has announced it will list three new stock tokens over the coming week, following the launch of similar ones tracking the performance of Tesla and Coinbase shares earlier this month.

Launching them today, Binance said it would create tokens for the two tech giants Apple and Microsoft, as well as Microstrategy, the business intelligence company.

Like the ones for Tesla and Coinbase (COIN), the tokens allow users to trade fractionalized units of the share tokens, with minimum trade sizing set at one one-hundredth of a token.

Binance said all three coins would start trading over the next few weeks, with the first one going live today.

The exchange said its stock tokens are “fully backed by a depository portfolio of underlying securities” held by German financial services provider, CM-Equity AG. The tokens will observe traditional stock trading hours.

The tokens will only be tradable against Binance’s stablecoin BUSD, it added.

Get ready for Britcoin - Bank of England launches cryptoasset taskforce

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has created a taskforce within the Bank of England to explore the use case for launching the UK’s own digital currency.

The chancellor said a taskforce jointly led by the Bank’s deputy governor for financial stability, Jon Cunliffe, and the Treasury’s director general of financial services, Katharine Braddick, would “coordinate exploratory work” into what has been dubbed “Britcoin”.

Sunak said he wanted the City to be at the forefront of innovation and to take advantage of regulatory freedom after Brexit. Two new forums are therefore being established to engage technical experts and key stakeholders including financial institutions, retailers, businesses, civil society groups and consumers.

It comes amid the decline in the use of cash and the increased prominence of cryptoassets such as bitcoin, with Sunak also keen to show that the City will remain a global financial centre in future amid Brexit.

While no decision has been made formally, the Bank said a central bank-backed digital currency (CBDC) would represent a new form of digital money that exists alongside cash and bank deposits.

Ethereum smashes records after settling $1.5trn of transactions in Q1

The ethereum network settled a whopping $1.5 trillion in transactions, more than the previous seven quarters combined, new data has shown.

Data from Messari Research, an online database for cryptoasset data and market intelligence, recorded the staggering growth rate, and added that Ethereum might settle up to $6trn in transactions by the end of the year if it keeps up this trajectory.

It comes as ethereum continues to decouple from larger peer bitcoin, its price holding near a record high of $2,600 per coin over the weekend, even as bitcoin remains at $52,000, some 20% off its recent peak.

Ethereum has been hailed as the most developed smart contract network, but it continues to face competition from others including Cardano and Polkadot.

Cryptoasset professor Gensler sworn-in to SEC

Gary Gensler, a former professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a cryptoasset expert, has been sworn-in as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Gensler, who has also worked at Goldman Sachs in the M&A department as part of an extensive financial services career, is expected to make cryptoassets - as well as climate change - his two big priorities in his new role.

Nominated by President Joe Biden, Gensler’s stance on digital currencies will largely determine the future for crypto in the US.

At his swearing-in ceremony, Gensler said: “I feel incredibly privileged to join the SEC’s team of remarkable public servants. As Chair, every day, I will be animated by our mission: protecting investors, facilitating capital formation, and promoting fair, orderly, and efficient markets. It is that mission that has helped make American capital markets the most robust in the world.”

Ubisoft becomes Tezos baker

Ubisoft, the video game studio behind popular titles such as Assassin’s Creed, Prince of Persia and the Tom Clancy series, has said it will become a corporate Tezos baker, or validator node.

In a statement last week, Ubisoft announced its partnership with Tezos-backed Nomadic Labs, in a deal that will see the latter creating a validator node on the Tezos network.

The move means Ubisoft, via its Strategic Innovation Lab, will join the group of validator nodes that authenticate and add transaction blocks to the Tezos network, whilst it will also be able to give out rewards earned from validating transactions to wallets.