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.
BITCOIN BOMB THREATS: Bomb threats were emailed to hundreds of businesses, public offices and schools across the United States and Canada Thursday demanding $20,000 in bitcoin, but law enforcement agents said none of the threats seemed credible, Reuters reported. Six hours into the bomb scare, no actual explosives had been found but the threats had caused brief evacuations at a Toronto subway station, a North Carolina newspaper office and some public schools and businesses.
EXECS SETTLE ICO SCAM CHARGES: The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Wednesday that two former executives behind an allegedly fraudulent initial coin offering that was stopped by the agency earlier this year have been ordered in federal court to pay nearly $2.7M and are prohibited from serving as officers or directors of public companies or participating in future offerings of digital securities. AriseBank’s former Chief Executive Officer, Jared Rice Sr., and former Chief Operating Officer Stanley Ford were accused of offering and selling unregistered investments in their purported “AriseCoin” cryptocurrency by depicting AriseBank as a first-of-its-kind decentralized bank offering a variety of services to retail investors.
SAMSUNG EYES BLOCKCHAIN PHONE: Samsung (SSNLF) has filed three European trademark requests for blockchain-based smartphone features named as "Blockchain KeyStore," 'Blockchain key box" and "Blockchain Core," The Next Web reported Tuesday. Documents of the trademarks, which possibly allude to forms of private or public key storage, state that they will apply to "Smartphones; Software applications for use with mobile devices; Computer software platforms; Application software."
80% OF BITCOIN HOLDERS HAVE LESS THAN $100: According to a recent analysis by digital asset research firm Delphi, 22.9M bitcoin addresses currently have some bitcoin, but roughly half hold less than 0.001 BTC, or $3.40, and about 90% have less than one-tenth of a BTC, or $340, The Next Web reported Wednesday. The research also found that just 20% of bitcoin wallets hold over $100 worth of BTC and while there are over 1.5M bitcoin addresses with more than $1,000 in BTC, these owners hold account for under 7% of all addresses.
BASIS SHUTS DOWN: Cryptocurrency startup Basis, which was developing a “stable coin,” announced it would be shutting down and returning capital to investors in a Thursday post on its website. "Unfortunately, having to apply U.S. securities regulation to the system had a serious negative impact on our ability to launch Basis...We considered many alternative paths to launch to try and comply with the regulatory constraints while keeping our product compelling and competitive…Ultimately, however, we don't think any of the paths we considered are compelling enough for our users or our investors, or consistent enough with our vision to justify moving forward. As such, we are sad to share the news that we have decided to return capital to our investors. This also means, unfortunately, that the Basis project will be shutting down.”
OPERA LAUNCHES CRYPTO WALLET: Web browser Opera announced in a Thursday blog post that it has launched a browser for Android featuring crypto wallet integration and Web 3 support. The post said, “Our hope with this launch is that this step will accelerate the transition of cryptocurrencies from speculation and investment to being used for actual payments and transactions in your daily lives.” Web 3 is an umbrella term for a set of technologies intersecting cryptocurrencies, blockchains and distributed systems.
GEMINI LAUNCHES MOBILE APP: In a Tuesday blog post, Tyler Winklevoss announced that Gemini, the digital asset platform he co-founded with his twin Cameron Winklevoss, has launched a mobile app. He said, “The future of money is both digital and mobile, and now Gemini is too with the launch of the Gemini Mobile App! The Gemini Mobile App has the following features: Buy and sell cryptocurrency; View market prices and your portfolio value; Set price alerts; Set recurring buy orders; Buy The Cryptoverse; Send and receive cryptocurrency. Whether you’re a crypto expert or a newcomer, we’ve made engaging with crypto easy and secure by extending Gemini’s trusted platform to mobile. The Gemini Mobile App combines our institutional-grade security with a simple and intuitive experience.”
CRYPTO CHATTER: Fundstrat Global Advisor co-founder Tom Lee updated his “fair value” model for bitcoin in a client note, valuing the cryptocurrency between $13,800 and $14,800, CNBC reported Thursday. “Fair value is significantly higher than the current price of Bitcoin,” Lee said. “In fact, working backwards, to solve for the current price of Bitcoin, this implies crypto wallets should fall to 17M from 50M currently." User adoption and Bitcoin’s acceptance as an asset class are key factors in the cryptocurrency rebounding in price, Lee said, adding if the amount of bitcoin users neared even 7% of Visa's (V) total 4.5B, his regression model would place fair value at $150,000 per bitcoin. Meanwhile, billionaire Mike Novogratz, who has reported $136M in losses for his crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital Holdings, is still bullish on virtual currencies, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. Novogratz, who said the initial coin offering market is “pretty much dead,” said, “I do believe Bitcoin is going to be digital gold. That means it’s the only one of the coins out there that gets to be a legal pyramid scheme...Some of the smartest people in the investing world think it’s a store of value.”
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. Overstock (OSTK), DPW Holdings (DPW), Kodak (KODK), Ideanomics (IDEX), 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 was down about 1.2% this week to $3,250 in U.S. dollars, according to TradeBlock.
"The Intersection" is The Fly's recurring recap of news in the bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets.
Bitcoin
+ (+0.00%)
Bitcoin
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Samsung
+ (+0.00%)
Visa
-2.36 (-1.72%)
AMD
+0.435 (+2.19%)
Nvidia
-1.68 (-1.13%)
OSTK
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Ault Global Holdings
-0.0063 (-4.01%)
Eastman Kodak
+0.03 (+1.00%)
Ideanomics
+0.03 (+1.92%)
Riot Platforms
-0.05 (-3.23%)
Pareteum
-0.02 (-1.21%)
Srax
-0.01 (-0.38%)