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.
LIBRA ASSOCIATION WELCOMES BLOCKCHAIN CAPITAL: The Facebook (FB)-backed Libra Association announced Friday that blockchain industry investment firm Blockchain Capital has become its newest member. “We’re honored to join the Libra Association and believe deeply in the mission of creating a more equitable payment system. Leveraging blockchain technology to improve financial access and promote innovation has been at the core of Blockchain Capital’s portfolio strategy,” said Bart Stephens, co-founder and managing partner of Blockchain Capital. The Association also announced Thursday the appointment of James Emmett as the managing director of Libra Networks, the operating company subsidiary of the Libra Association. He previously held the CEO role of HSBC Bank (HSBC), Europe, where he was responsible for HSBC's UK Wholesale Bank and operations across Continental Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Bermuda.
BITFINEX GETS MORE TIME FOR DOCUMENTS: Crypto exchange Bitfinex secured additional time to provide documents in a case filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James that alleges it hid over $800M in losses of comingled client and corporate funds, Bloomberg’s Olga Kharif reported Thursday, citing a virtual ruling. The judge extended an injunction by 90 days and ordered a special referee to establish a schedule to provide documents requested. He also said he would defer to the referee in deciding which documents linked to the cryptocurrency Tether are relevant to the case. Bitfinex and related companies have said the lost funds were deposited with a Panamanian firm called Crypto Capital Corp and seized by government authorities in several countries. The company is working to recover the money.
RUSSIANS SANCTIONED OVER CRYPTO THEFT: The U.S. Department of Treasury announced Wednesday in a coordinated action with the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned two Russian nationals. The Russians were sanctioned for their involvement in a sophisticated phishing campaign in 2017 and 2018 that targeted customers of three virtual asset service providers. American citizens and businesses were among the victims of this malicious cyber-enabled activity, which resulted in combined losses of at least $16.8M. Danil Potekhin and Dmitrii Karasavidi are being designated pursuant to Executive Order 13694, which targets malicious cyber-enabled activities, including those related to the significant misappropriation of funds or personal identifiers for private financial gain. Potekhin and Karasavidi are also the subjects of an indictment by the Department of Justice.
MARATHON WITHDRAWS FASTBLOCK OFFER: Marathon Patent Group (MARA) announced Thursday that as of September 11th, the company has withdrawn its offer to acquire Fastblock Mining. During its due diligence process, the company discovered that the Power Agreement pursuant to which Fastblock would provide power at a subsidized rate of $0.0285KwH, would expire in three years. The company and Fastblock were unsuccessful in attempts to extend the term of that agreement with the power provider to the seven to ten-year window which the company would need for this acquisition to be economically feasible. The company has executed a term sheet with an alternate power company to provide 104MwH of power at $0.028KwH for 11 years, for which terms will be announced upon completion of due diligence and execution of definitive documentation.
TZERO CRYPTO APP GROWS USERS 11% IN AUGUST: On Wednesday, Overstock’s (OSTK) tZERO announced results for August 2020. The tZERO ATS, operated by a wholly-owned broker dealer subsidiary of tZERO, recorded its strongest month ever in August 2020. It traded over 2.3M digital securities, a 21x increase compared to August 2019, and transacted nearly $22.M of securities, exceeding the previous record of $7.6M set in July. Year-to-date through August, the total volume of shares traded on the tZERO ATS has increased by over 300% compared to the same period last year, and the total dollar volume for the same period is likewise up roughly 684%. The tZERO Crypto app, separately operated by tZERO’s subsidiary, tZERO Crypto, increased its user base by over 11% last month, the highest monthly account increase to date. Through August 31, 2020, user growth is up 143% for 2020. The tZERO Crypto app also had its most transactions by both total amount and dollar value since the app launched in June 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, 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 6% this week at $10,914 in U.S. dollars, according to TradeBlock.
Bitcoin
+ (+0.00%)
Bitcoin
+ (+0.00%)
Ticker changed to META
+2.25 (+0.88%)
HSBC
-0.31 (-1.54%)
Marathon Digital
-0.005 (-0.25%)
Overstock.com
-1.32 (-1.83%)
AMD
-0.165 (-0.22%)
Nvidia
+1.71 (+0.34%)
Ideanomics
+ (+0.00%)
Riot Platforms
+0.05 (+1.68%)
Pareteum
-0.0085 (-1.39%)
Srax
+ (+0.00%)