*By Jacqueline Corba*
Bitcoin soared back above the [$8,000 mark this week for the first time since May](https://cheddar.com/videos/reddit-co-founder-on-the-state-of-cryptocurrency). The surge comes as more institutional investors look to grab a piece of the still-emerging crypto market.
"From a stored value perspective I'm a Bitcoin maximalist," [Fin co-CEO and co-Founder Sam Lessin](https://cheddar.com/videos/tech-entrepreneur-sam-lessin-authors-childrens-book-on-bitcoin) told Cheddar's Crypto Craze Thursday. "If you look at the broader blockchain and crypto ecosystem, I don't think people fully appreciate how deeply big a deal it is to have an immutable ledger globally."
Lessin, who served as a vice president of product management at Facebook from 2010 to 2014, joins fellow Facebook alum Anthony Pompliano in his bullish outlook on Bitcoin, the largest digital currency by market cap.
"I've got a high degree of confidence that at some point in the future its going to hit $50,000. And I've got some degree of confidence that it will be by the end of this year," Pompliano, who now runs Morgan Creek Digital Assets, told Cheddar.
The factors driving the value up? Human psychology, speculation around a [cryptocurrency ETF](https://www.coindesk.com/bitwise-proposes-etf-for-top-10-cryptos/), and growing institutional interest, said Pompliano.
Facebook itself even wants in on crypto. In May, [Cheddar reported Facebook is developing its own digital currency](https://cheddar.com/videos/facebook-plans-to-create-its-own-cryptocurrency-2).
"I have a lot of respect for the Facebook team," said Lessin. "What they have is a fundamental networkーthe biggest one ever in the history of the world connecting people." He called a Facebook move toward crypto an "obvious play."
For full interview, [click here] (https://cms.cheddar.com/videos/VmlkZW8tMjExNzY=).
Critics slammed Amazon.com for selling Christmas ornaments, bottle openers and other trinkets that featured scenes of the Auschwitz concentration camp ー all made by a third party seller called "Fcheng."
Offensive trinkets sold on the Amazon Marketplace may be part of a bigger problem facing retailers: the rise of robots using algorithms to generate an endless variety of cheap products--all to entice even one buyer. Juozas Kaziukėnas, founder of e-commerce analysis company Marketplace Pulse, explains how these sellers work.
The automaker and breakfast purveyor announced a collaboration to create plastic vehicle parts out of coffee bean waste from the roasting process.
Expedia's Chief Executive Mark Okerstrom and Chief Financial Officer Alan Pickerill will resign their posts effective immediately. The year has been notable for how many chief executives have resigned, quit, or been forced out.
The San Francisco-based company, led by SoFi's former CEO Mike Cagney, provides fixed-rate Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOCs) in an all-digital process that promises borrowers decisions in less than five minutes and funding in less than five days.
Geoffroy Van Raemdonick, CEO of Neiman Marcus, told Cheddar that the luxury retailer is embracing a guided online shopping experience with the help of personal shoppers and machine learning.
The New York State Department of Financial Services has granted the notoriously tough-to-get BitLicense to the digital bank to trade cryptocurrencies.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Tuesday, December 3, 2019
The energy sector is in "a really exciting time," Chairman Neil Chatterjee told Cheddar Monday. His agency, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, is charged with overseeing the power grid.
Cyber Monday has grown to become one of the most critical shopping events of the year for retailers. In 2019, Adobe Analytics is predicting consumers are on track to spend $9.4 billion ー 19 percent year-over-year growth.
