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.
1. JAPAN APPROVES SELF-REGULATION FOR CRYPTO INDUSTRY: On Wednesday, Japan's Financial Services Agency gave the cryptocurrency industry self-regulatory status, allowing the Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association to police and sanction exchanges for any violations, Reuters reported. The agency's approval gives the association the authority to establish rules to safeguard customer assets, prevent money laundering, and give operational guidelines. The FSA also published a set of guidelines for those applying to run crypto exchange.
2. COINBASE, CIRCLE FORM JV: On Tuesday, Circle announced that it has partnered with Coinbase to form the CENTRE Consortium, a joint venture aimed at establishing a standard for fiat on the internet and providing a governance framework and network for the global, mainstream adoption of fiat stablecoins. The first major initiative from CENTRE is USD Coin, a stablecoin technology and network scheme. Circle recently became the first issuer of USDC and Coinbase is making it available to customers on Coinbase Pro and Coinbase.com. Customers can tokenize dollars into USDC and redeem USDC into dollars through both Circle and Coinbase, making USD Coin the industry's first open, fungible and interoperable fiat stablecoin. Additionally on Tuesday, the New York State Department of Financial Services announced it has approved the application of Coinbase Custody Trust Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Coinbase, to operate as a limited purpose trust company.
3. AMD SLIDES AMID CRYPTO SLOWDOWN: Shares of AMD (AMD) dropped after the chipmaker announced third quarter earnings Wednesday and guided to Q4 revenue below Wall Street's expectations. On the company's Q3 conference call, Chief Financial Officer Devinder Kumar said, "Channel GPU sales came in lower than expected, based on excess channel inventory levels, caused by the decline in blockchain-related demand that was so strong earlier in the year." Shares of competitor Nvidia (NVDA) also fell following the remarks.
4. OVERSTOCK SUBSIDIARY INVESTS IN MINDS, INC.: On Monday, crypto social network Minds, Inc. announced a $6M Series A investment from Medici Ventures, the wholly-owned blockchain subsidiary of Overstock.com (OSTK). Overstock.com founder and Chief Executive Officer Patrick Byrne will be joining the Minds board of directors. Minds recently launched the $MINDS crypto token on the Ethereum Mainnet as a way for users to boost their content, subscribe to media subscriptions and access exclusive content.
5. IDEANOMICS TO ADVISE ON DIGITAL FINANCING: Ideanomics (SSC) announced Wednesday that its commodities and energy division has signed its first project for a traditional financing and security token offering by entering into a financial advisory service agreement with Zhonjinhuifu Resources. Under the agreement, Ideanomics will advise and lead Zhonjinhuifu on its planned $200M capital raise over the next two years. CRYPTO STOCK PLAYS: Cryptocurrency revenues have been pointed to as reasons to be bullish on Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia in select research. Overstock, DPW Holdings (DPW), Kodak (KODK), Ideanomics, Riot Blockchain (RIOT), Pareteum (TEUM) and Social Reality (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 0.1% this week to $6,424 in U.S. dollars, according to CoinDesk.
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Bitcoin
+ (+0.00%)
Bitcoin
+ (+0.00%)
AMD
-1.63 (-8.46%)
Nvidia
-12.42 (-5.97%)
OSTK
+
Ideanomics
-0.05 (-1.52%)
Ault Global Holdings
-0.0057 (-2.07%)
Eastman Kodak
-0.11 (-4.42%)
Riot Platforms
+0.05 (+2.07%)
Pareteum
-0.11 (-4.85%)
Srax
-0.11 (-4.31%)