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.
COINBASE SUSPENDS ETHEREUM CLASSIC: Coinbase said in a blog post on Monday: "On 1/5/2019, Coinbase detected a deep chain reorganization of the Ethereum Classic blockchain. In order to protect customer funds, we immediately paused interactions with the ETC blockchain" In an update, the company said, "At time of writing, we have identified a total of 15 reorganizations, 12 of which contained double spends, totaling 219,500 ETC, approx. $1.1M. No Coinbase accounts have been impacted by the attack…The Coinbase team is currently evaluating the safety of re-enabling sends and receives of Ethereum Classic and will communicate to our customers what to expect regarding support for ETC."
BITCOIN PLUMMETS BACK BELOW $4,000: Bitcoin fell 9% on Thursday morning to a low of $3,570.29, bringing the cryptocurrency's one-year losses to over 70%, CNBC reported. Other digital currencies dropped as well with Ether slumping 15% and XRP falling 9%. Mati Greenspan, a senior market analyst at eToro, said there doesn't seem to be a reason for the drop, adding, "The one interesting thing about this movement is that it seems to be an exact reversal of the surge that happened on Sunday afternoon. At this point, the gains made since the start of the year have now been reversed and we're back to a neutral 2019." Meanwhile, CoinFi CEO Timothy Tam told Bloomberg while there appears to be no immediate reason, he did note a large transfer of roughly 40,000 Ether into an exchange an hour before the fall. “Usually transfer of Ethereum onto an exchange indicates an intent to sell, and if there is a sell-off on one exchange it compounds like dominoes to another because arbitragers will sell immediately on the other exchanges as well,” he said.
NEW YORK OPENS BLOCKCHAIN CENTER: On Thursday, New York City Economic Development Corporation announced it has selected Future\Perfect Labs and Global Blockchain Business Council Future to launch and operate the city’s first public-private NYC Blockchain Center and SecondMuse to operate the NYC BigApps Blockchain Challenge. Future\Perfect Labs and GBBC Labs will manage the NYC Blockchain Center, which is in Chelsea. Jalak Jobanputra of FPV and Sandra Ro of GBBC will co-lead this unique private-public partnership and bring their extensive blockchain expertise and networks to the Center. “We are thrilled to partner with two accomplished blockchain industry leaders to help grow New York City’s blockchain network,” said NYCEDC President and CEO James Patchett.
IDEANOMICS, NFTZ ENTER FINANCE AGREEMENT: Ideanomics (IDEX) announced Thursday that it has entered into an agreement with Ningbo Free Trade Zone Cross-Border Supply Chain Management and Settlement Technology to service cross-border supply chain management and trade finance services. Ideanomics will have multiple revenue stream opportunities including a share of the fees in connection with the payment and settlement of up to RMB500M, or $74M, per day in the Ningbo Free Trade Zone.
DPW UPDATES CORPORATE REALIGNMENT: DPW Holdings (DPW) announced Friday that it has completed establishing DPW Financial and DPW Technologies. DPW anticipates aggregating all reporting by its subsidiaries and business units through these two new subsidiaries, starting as early as Q1. DPW Technology will focus on advanced technology, design, power solutions and manufacturing businesses in defense, aerospace, telecom, medical, and textiles, while DPW Financial will focus on lending, cryptocurrency mining, hospitality, and real estate. In addition, the company announced Tuesday that it received a deficiency letter from NYSE American indicating it is not in compliance with the continued listing standards as the Exchange determined shares have been selling for a low price per share for a substantial period of time. The company's continued listing is predicated on the company affecting a reverse stock split no later than July 4, 2019.
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, 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 2.9% this week to $3,643 in U.S. dollars, according to TradeBlock.
Bitcoin
+ (+0.00%)
Bitcoin
+ (+0.00%)
Ideanomics
+0.06 (+4.58%)
Ault Global Holdings
+0.0087 (+7.83%)
AMD
-0.1 (-0.51%)
Nvidia
-0.25 (-0.17%)
OSTK
+
Eastman Kodak
+0.02 (+0.62%)
Riot Platforms
+ (+0.00%)
Pareteum
+0.14 (+6.54%)
Srax
+ (+0.00%)