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.
MUSK BACKS BITCOIN: Billionaire and Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk said bitcoin is “on the verge” of gaining wider acceptance from investors as he expressed support for the cryptocurrency, Reuters reported Monday, citing remarks he made during a chat on social media app Clubhouse. “I am a supporter of bitcoin,” he said. “I was a little slow on the uptake.” Musk added he should have bought the cryptocurrency eight years ago. “I think bitcoin is on the verge of getting broad acceptance by conventional finance people,” he said. Additionally on Thursday, Musk tweeted about cryptocurrency Dogecoin two days after he said he was planning to take a break from the social media site. Musk first tweeted “Doge” after a picture of a rocket going to the moon and then tweeted “Dogecoin is the people’s crypto”. The CEO also posted an edited image of himself with the Shiba Inu dog at the center of the doge meme, also the logo for the cryptocurrency.
ETHEREUM JUMPS AHEAD OF CME FUTURES LAUNCH: Ethereum hit all-time highs as traders purchased the digital currency prior to the launch of ethereum futures on Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), Reuters reported on Wednesday. “The listing of ethereum futures on a regulated exchange should serve to enhance the crypto market structure by allowing investors to gain exposure to the second most important cryptocurrency as a diversifier to bitcoin, or for simply hedging existing ethereum exposures,” wrote JPMorgan strategists in a note to clients. “It may be that this week’s listing of ethereum futures contracts will be followed by negative price dynamics by enabling some holders of physical ethereum to hedge their exposures…a successful launch of ethereum futures this month is likely to be followed by options on ethereum futures, perhaps as early as 2022, in a similar manner to the launch of options on bitcoin futures in the first quarter of 2020”.
INDIA PROPOSES BAN ON CRYPTO: India plans to unveil a law to prohibit private cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and establish a framework for an official digital currency to be issued by the central bank, Reuters’ Rajendra Jadhav reported Saturday. The legislation will “create a facilitative framework for creation of the official digital currency to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India,” according to a legislative agenda. The law, listed for debate in the current parliamentary session, seeks “to prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India, however, it allows for certain exceptions to promote the underlying technology of cryptocurrency and its uses.”
GOLDMAN’S RAHMANI ISSUES BITCOIN WARNING: Goldman Sachs’ (GS) Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani, head of the investment-strategy group for the bank’s consumer and investment management group, said the volatility in the price of bitcoin proves it is not a real unit of value, Bloomberg’s Devon Pendleton reported Wednesday. “Something with a long-term volatility of 80% can’t be considered a medium of exchange,” said Rahmani. “Just because everybody piles into into an idea and talks it up doesn’t mean it’s a store of value.” However, blockchain technology “is here to stay”, she said, adding the technology could facilitate the smoother flow of global assets and will become part of the financial infrastructure.
MARATHON ANNOUNCES MINER SHIPMENT: Marathon Patent Group (MARA) announced Monday that 4,000 Antminer S-19 Pro ASIC miners have been shipped from Bitmain to Marathon's mining facility in Hardin, MT as scheduled. Marathon's current mining fleet consists of 2,560 miners, generating 248 PH/s. Each S-19 Pro miner produces 110 TH/s and adds 0.11 PH/s to the company's existing operations. Once the additional 4,000 miners are installed, the company's mining fleet will consist of 6,560 miners producing approximately 688 PH/s. This represents a 256% increase of the current Hashrate production. To date, the company has purchased 103,060 miners, which, once delivered and fully deployed, will produce approximately 10.36 EH/s.
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), Ideanomics (IDEX), Riot Blockchain (RIOT), Pareteum (TEUM) and SRAX (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 3.6% this week at $38,242 in U.S. dollars, according to TradeBlock.
Bitcoin
+ (+0.00%)
Bitcoin
+ (+0.00%)
Tesla
-4.62 (-0.54%)
CME Group
-3.45 (-1.78%)
Goldman Sachs
+1.02 (+0.35%)
Marathon Digital
+0.61 (+2.68%)
AMD
-0.27 (-0.31%)
Nvidia
-0.78 (-0.14%)
OSTK
+
Ideanomics
-0.05 (-0.95%)
Riot Platforms
+0.71 (+3.08%)
Pareteum
+ (+0.00%)
Srax
-0.07 (-1.57%)