As bitcoin, ethereum and other cryptocurrencies get increasing attention from investors, Wall Street and its traditional banks continue to adjust to the shift. Catch up on this week's top stories highlighting the intersection of these old guard and new school areas of finance with this recap compiled by The Fly.
FIDELITY LAUNCHES BITCOIN OFFERING FOR 401K LINEUP: Fidelity Investments announced Tuesday the launch of Fidelity’s workplace Digital Assets Account, an offering that will enable individuals to have a portion of their retirement savings allocated to bitcoin through the core 401(k) plan investment lineup. The new offering, which MicroStrategy (MSTR) plans to add to its 401(k) plan later this year, will be available broadly to employers mid-year. The company said, “Enabling interested employers to offer their employees access to bitcoin through an investment option in their core 401(k) retirement plans on Fidelity’s secure platforms is a significant milestone in advancing Fidelity’s position as a holistic digital assets service provider. Fidelity began its exploration of blockchain technology in 2014 with bitcoin mining and in 2018 launched its first commercial offering: Fidelity Digital Assets, a platform that offers custody and trade execution for digital assets to institutional investors. In 2020, Fidelity’s digital asset management business launched a private bitcoin fund that is currently available to accredited investors.”
GOLDMAN OFFERS BITCOIN-BACKED LOAN: Goldman Sachs (GS) has extended its lending service to offer cash loans using bitcoin as collateral, Bloomberg's Yueqi Yang reported Thursday, citing a bank spokesowoman. The bank, which lent cash collateralized by bitcoin owned by the borrower, saw the deal as interesting due to its structure and 24-hour risk management. Goldman traded its first over-the-counter bitcoin options in March and has a digital assets team.
RIOT INITIATES 1 GW DEVELOPMENT IN TEXAS: Riot Blockchain (RIOT) announced Wednesday that it has initiated a large-scale, 1 gigawatt development to expand its bitcoin mining and hosting capabilities in Navarro County, Texas. The expansion has begun with the development of an initial 400 megawatts of capacity on a 265-acre site, with immersion-cooled mining and hosting operations expected to commence in July 2023. This first phase of the Eepansion includes land acquisition, site preparation, substation development, transmission construction, along with construction of ancillary buildings and four buildings utilizing the company's immersion-cooling infrastructure and technology. Riot estimates that the total cost of the first phase of the expansion will be approximately $333M, which is scheduled to be invested over the remainder of 2022, 2023, and the first quarter of 2024. After completing the first 400 MW phase of the expansion, future capacity at the site will be expandable by an additional 600 MW to 1,000 MW, or 1 GW, via the 345 kV Navarro switch that is located approximately 1,250 feet away from the site. The first 400 MW phase of the Eepansion is anticipated to create approximately 270 direct jobs.
COINBASE PRICE TARGET LOWERED: Wedbush analyst Moshe Katri lowered the firm's price target on Coinbase (COIN) on Wednesday to $160 from $380 and kept an Outperform rating on the shares. The analyst now assumes weaker than expected trading volumes to persist throughout 2022, resulting in negative year-over-year revenue growth, as well as incremental expenses associated with management's aggressive recruiting plans as well as investments to pressure 2022's EBIT margins.
KRAKEN SECURES ABU DHABI LICENSE: Abu Dhabi Global Market announced Monday the welcoming of Kraken to its fast-growing virtual asset community and financial ecosystem. Kraken is the first global cryptocurrency exchange to receive a Financial Services Permission license to operate a regulated virtual asset exchange platform in the ADGM to service the needs of the Middle East and North Africa region. Kraken has met all approval conditions from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of ADGM to operate as a Virtual Asset Multilateral Trading Facility and Custodian in Abu Dhabi and the wider UAE. Affirming its commitment to Abu Dhabi and the UAE, Kraken has established its Middle East HQ in ADGM to drive its UAE business and plans. Kraken will be the first global virtual assets exchange group in the UAE to offer investors the ability to invest, trade, withdraw and deposit virtual assets directly in local AED currency.
CRYPTO STOCK PLAYS: Cryptocurrency revenues have been pointed to as reasons to be bullish on Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Nvidia (NVDA) in select research. Ideanomics (IDEX), Riot Blockchain, Overstock (OSTK), Pareteum (TEUM) and SRAX (SRAX) are other stocks that have been touted, or promoted themselves, as a way to play the crypto theme.
PRICE ACTION: As of time of writing, bitcoin dropped about 2% this week at $38,883 in U.S. dollars, according to TradeBlock.
Bitcoin
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Bitcoin
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Bitcoin
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Ethereum
+
Litecoin
+
Dogecoin
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MicroStrategy
-4 (-1.00%)
Goldman Sachs
-2.79 (-0.88%)
Riot Platforms
+0.02 (+0.18%)
Coinbase
-0.24 (-0.20%)
AMD
-0.65 (-0.72%)
Nvidia
-3.17 (-1.60%)
Ideanomics
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Pareteum
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Srax
+0.18 (+4.68%)
OSTK
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