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.
BAKKT TO TEST APP WITH STARBUCKS: In a Monday blog post, Bakkt chief product officer Mike Blandina wrote, “You’ve seen our efforts in our mission to 'build trust in digital assets' with the successful introduction of the Bakkt Bitcoin Futures and the Bakkt Warehouse. In fact on Friday, we set another trading record of 1,179 contracts, the same week we announced bitcoin options will launch in December. With this in motion, we wanted to share more about our strategy for the other core tenet of our mission -- namely, “unlocking the value of digital assets” through consumer payments… We’re now focused on the development of the consumer app and merchant portal, as well as testing with our first launch partner, Starbucks (SBUX), which we expect in the first half of next year.” Bakkt is an affiliate of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE).
DORSEY BACKS COINLIST: Twitter (TWTR) CEO and bitcoin advocate Jack Dorsey has invested in CoinList, a company that helps startups raise money through token sales, the Wall Street Journal’s Steven Russolillo reported Wednesday. The two-year-old firm raised $10M in a new funding round led by Polychain Capital and plans to use it to offer more services, including a new exchange and a crypto wallet. Dorsey, who invested in the company for the first time, also serves as CEO of Square (SQ), which announced Square Crypto earlier this year. “Crypto needs a trustworthy platform for launching new projects,” Dorsey said in a statement. “CoinList leads the industry in that role, and trading is a logical next step.”
PRESIDENT XI ENDORSES BLOCKCHAIN ADOPTION: Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China, said the country should "seize the opportunity" to adopt blockchain technology, Coindesk's William Foxley reported Friday. "We must take the blockchain as an important breakthrough for independent innovation of core technologies... clarify the main direction, increase investment, focus on a number of key core technologies, and accelerate the development of blockchain technology and industrial innovation," Xi said, adding it would be "necessary to implement the rule of law network" into blockchain systems.
CHINA BITCOIN MINER FILES FOR NASDAQ LISTING: Canaan Creative, a Chinese bitcoin mining hardware maker, filed to publicly list on Nasdaq on Monday to raise $400M. The company said it aims to use the cash to fund artificial intelligence and blockchain research as well as to pay off debts. The move marks the firm’s third attempt to list after previous failed tries in mainland China and Hong Kong.
PAXOS RECEIVES NO-ACTION RELIEF FROM SEC: Paxos Trust Company, a New York-regulated financial institution that digitizes and mobilizes assets, announced Monday that it received No-Action relief from the staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to introduce Paxos Settlement Service. Following the No-Action letter, the blockchain settlement platform will soon begin processing transactions for a limited number of broker-dealers for certain listed U.S. equity securities. Credit Suisse (CS) and Société Générale (SCGLY) will be the first in a group of early adopters to use Paxos Settlement Service. Paxos Settlement Service is a private, permissioned blockchain solution designed to allow two parties to bilaterally settle securities trades directly with each other.
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 rose roughly 18.7% this week to $9,108 in U.S. dollars, according to TradeBlock.
Bitcoin
+ (+0.00%)
Bitcoin
+ (+0.00%)
Starbucks
-0.41 (-0.48%)
IntercontinentalExchange
+0.68 (+0.72%)
+0.27 (+0.90%)
Block
+0.55 (+0.90%)
Acquired by UBS
+0.18 (+1.45%)
Societe Generale
+ (+0.00%)
AMD
+0.35 (+1.03%)
Nvidia
-0.82 (-0.41%)
OSTK
+
Ault Global Holdings
+0.02 (+1.80%)
Eastman Kodak
+0.005 (+0.19%)
Riot Platforms
-0.01 (-0.64%)
Pareteum
-0.001 (-0.28%)
Srax
+ (+0.00%)