Crypto has staged a stunning breakout on Monday morning, defying the recent gloom for investors.

At the time of writing bitcoin (BITCOMP) has surged from trading around $34,000 over the weekend to now above $39,000. The cryptoasset traded as low as $29,504 on Wednesday and is now up 32%.

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Ethereum similarly has taken off. Having reached a low of $1,730 on Tuesday, ETH is now trading around $2,385 - a 38% increase (ETH-X). 

The bullish trading comes on the back of news over the weekend that Amazon (AMZN) is looking to expand its cryptoasset presence, with the news it was hiring a cryptocurrency and blockchain lead.

Amazon’s tentative move has sent shockwaves through crypto markets. The firm is the largest ecommerce, web hosting and streaming provider in the world. In its full-year results for 2020 it recorded some $386 billion of revenue. 

The implication some of this revenue could be captured by crypto payments in future could be profound for markets. While too early to definitively say, the Amazon announcement could soon bear similarity to the breakout in prices caused by the announcement of PayPal (PYPL) that it would accept bitcoin on its platform in October 2020. 

When PayPal made its announcement, bitcoin languished around $11,700, but the ensuing bull run took the cryptoasset to an all-time high of $63,346.

JPMorgan gives clients access to crypto

Investment bank JPMorgan (JPM) has become the first major mainstream financial institution to offer clients access to cryptoassets. 

Advisors at the firm can now pick from five different cryptoasset products, provided by Grayscale Investment and Osprey Funds.

However, according to reports from Business Insider, advisors can for now only execute trades on behalf of clients that ask for cryptoasset exposure, they cannot recommend products without prompting.

While institutional adoption of cryptoassets is gaining ground, JPMorgan remains the only major institution to adopt options for private clients. Goldman Sachs (GS) offers crypto futures trading to institutional clients only.

Crypto firms hit funding streak despite selloffs

Blockchain firms raised record investment funding in Q2, despite major selloffs in cryptoasset markets.

Companies focused on blockchain technology raised some $4.4 billion in funding according to analytics firm CB Insights, up over 50% from the previous quarter. This is the first time ever that blockchain startups have raised over $4 billion in a three month period. 

The firm which received the largest capital injection was Circle, a payments and digital currency startup which recently announced plans to IPO via SPAC. The company received a $440 million cash injection from investors. 

Other big raisers included Ledger, a hardware wallet maker which raised $380 million from investors in June. 

Musk moves the dial again with crypto pronouncements

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk made waves midweek after saying Tesla (TSLA) will “most likely”' start accepting bitcoin again and disclosing his SpaceX venture holds the cryptoasset.

Commenting during a panel discussion alongside Twitter (TWTR) chief executive Jack Dorsey, Musk added that: “I might pump but I never dump” crypto. Dorsey meanwhile dodged Musk when asked if Twitter would begin to accept bitcoin from advertisers.

Although bitcoin bumped up 5% on his comments, the cryptoasset remained relatively stable after significant price falls in previous days.

Musk also commented on the growing shift toward renewable energy of the world’s largest cryptoasset, remarking on the shutdown of coal-energy-heavy bitcoin mining in China being curtailed, despite sending the price diving after raising his concerns over its energy usage in May.