Welcome to the daily crypto news :

• Cryptocurrency Is Still the World’s Best Performing Asset Class This Year;

• PODCAST: Introducing ’The Breakdown’ With Nathaniel Whittemore;

• Hold Tight, Here Come the Blockchain Wars;

• Planned $1.1B Sale of .Org Angers Many Open Source Crypto Developers;

• Kraken Job Ad Hints at Plan to Build Special-Purpose Wyoming Bank;

Cryptocurrency Is Still the World’s Best Performing Asset Class This Year

As the year and decade come to an end, cryptocurrencies once again outperform other major asset classes.

Despite trading significantly down from their record highs of late December 2017, large-cap cryptocurrencies had a phenomenal year and remain one of the greatest investment success stories of the decade.

Cementing themselves as the world’s leading asset class for yearly performance, cryptocurrencies have risen well above annualized returns of the U.S. equities, commodities and bond markets for 2019.

Ryan Alfred, President and co-founder of Digital Assets Data said large-cap crypto assets possess significantly higher returns versus traditional markets for this year.

“Looking back at the performance of the top ten large-caps (Bitwise 10) in comparison to other major asset classes, we can see their special signature,” Alfred said.

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PODCAST: Introducing ’The Breakdown’ With Nathaniel Whittemore

In the debut episode @NLW discusses recent regulatory action, DeFi project on a bitcoin sidechain and a new social media protocol initiative from Twitter.

The last few days have seen significant regulatory action, from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charging Shopin’s CEO with fraud over a $42 million ICO to a major coordinated federal action against an alleged $722 million crypto Ponzi scheme.

Over in the world of decentralized finance, meanwhile, a new project aims to show DeFi isn’t just for ethereum. Finally, Twitter is launching a Square Crypto–like skunkworks to support or create an open social media protocol. This and more on The Breakdown.

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Hold Tight, Here Come the Blockchain Wars

This post is part of CoinDesk's 2019 Year in Review, a collection of 100 op-eds, interviews and takes on the state of blockchain and the world. Gavin Wood is the co-founder of Ethereum, Parity Technologies, Polkadot and the Web3 Foundation.

I don’t want to romanticize what, at the end of the day, is only a few of the many pipe-dream promises finally starting to be fulfilled. That said, I will stick a flag in the sand and state that I do believe that a renewed flurry in the world of blockchain is coming. Whether we see any knock-on effects beginning now or in twelve months’ time, there are important developments going on behind the scenes that, when translated into tangible products, will jerk the industry forward one way or another. In short, blockchain 3.0 is well on its way.

I wouldn’t exactly call this a Golden Age. There’s a bit too much baggage for that. The days of money raining from heaven before quickly being irrigated into a swampy Caymans company are, I think, over. There’s still some “dumb” money around, but there’s less of it; natural selection did its job over crypto winter. “Smart” money will undoubtedly do its homework before getting into bed with a new project. The upshot of this is threefold.

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Planned $1.1B Sale of .Org Angers Many Open Source Crypto Developers

In the world of open-source software, a .org top-level domain - think linux.org and bitcoin.org - has always been an imprimatur of philosophical adherence and, to a degree, quality. Now, however, the .org top-level domain (TLD) is going into private hands, a move that is frustrating both traditional and blockchain open-source developers.

The news that Ethos Capital, a secretive group of investors, bought the TLD caused a minor firestorm in the open-source ecosystem. The fact that the group bought the TLD for a reported $1.135 billion added fuel to the flames.

The complaint? That a private .org TLD would lock out open source creators and non-profits. With blockchain projects depending more and more on open source contributions, the move could also affect the crypto industry.

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Kraken Job Ad Hints at Plan to Build Special-Purpose Wyoming Bank

Kraken appears to be preparing to open a limited-purpose bank in Wyoming that would let it store customers’ fiat deposits – and possibly operate in New York without a BitLicense.

The cryptocurrency exchange has opened up a position for an operations director to oversee a Wyoming special-purpose depository institution (SPDI). The job includes building out an operations team, developing systems and operational processes to be an SPDI and integrating that entity into the exchange’s platforms.

The director would also ensure the functionality of the different capabilities that come with being an SPDI bank, including access to Fedwire, Fed Master Accounts, the Automated Clearing House and correspondent banking.

It’s unclear whether Kraken has applied yet for an SPDI from Wyoming. While it and other firms have expressed interest in pursuing the charter, none have announced doing so. Kraken did not respond to request for comment by press time.

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