Crypto Currents: Crypto.com files lawsuit against SEC

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.

CRYPTO.COM FILES SUIT AGAINST SEC: Crypto.com, a cryptocurrency exchange that supports trading, investing, staking, wallets and NFTs, announced Tuesday it(CLSK) announced Thursday it has achieved 30 exahashes per second in operational hashrate. The company’s hashrate has surged 200% since October 2023 through organic growth paired with turn-key acquisitions and the execution of a fleet upgrade, improving efficiency during the same period by nearly 20% and boosting the number of operational machines by 112%. The efficiency improvement strategy has resulted in increased computing power while consuming less energy and allowing for more hashrate to be generated with fewer machines. The company expects to surpass 37 EH/s before the end of 2024 and intends to continue its growth to 50 EH/s and beyond in 2025. Additional hashrate is anticipated to come online due to the expected acquisition closing of GRIID Infrastructure (GRDI) this month.

“Reaching 30 EH/s positions us as one of the largest bitcoin miners in the world. We have added more operational hashrate than any other miner in 2024. The results we continue to deliver demonstrate our commitment and ability to scale rapidly and with capital efficiency,” said Zach Bradford, CEO. “Our team’s agility, effectiveness and relentless grit has been paramount to the success of CleanSpark. Our efforts to time the market and lock in industry-best pricing on rigs and sites positioned us to take advantage of the opportunities in the market. During this period of rapid expansion of our operations, we have also grown our bitcoin treasury to over 8,049 bitcoin. Since October 2021, we have significantly increased our computing power year over year by quadrupling in 2022, nearly doubling in 2023 and tripling our hashrate in 2024.”

BITDEER INITIATED WITH BUY: Alliance Global Partners initiated coverage of Bitdeer (BTDR) on Tuesday with a Buy rating and $14 price target. The firm expects Bitdeer will have a self-mining hash rate of about 7.7 EH/s during Q3 with “a line of sight” to at least 30 EH/s by the end of 2025. The company has several other businesses that diversify it from the volatility of bitcoin, including hosting and hash rate sharing that allow it to lock in favorable economics for several years during bull cycles, the analyst said.

Additionally on Wednesday, Northland initiated coverage of Bitdeer with an Outperform rating and $13 price target. Bitdeer has historically focused on bitcoin mining, and to a lessor extent, hosting, but is now pivoting to high performance computing and also has a new ASIC chip ready for miner production, the analyst said. With the HPC/AI transition via about 800 MW in Ohio and other power assets, the ASIC miner opportunity, strong core business, and attractive valuation, the firm believes Bitdeer “presents a compelling investment opportunity,” the analyst added.

Meanwhile on Friday, B. Riley lowered the firm’s price target on Bitdeer to $12 from $14 and kept a Buy rating on the shares. Bitdeer produced 164 BTC in September, down 1% month over month, and reached an operational hash rate of 8.1 EH/s, up 3.9% m/m, the analyst said.

COINBASE PRICE TARGET RAISED: Barclays raised the firm’s price target on Coinbase (COIN) on Monday to $175 from $169 and kept an Equal Weight rating on the shares as part of a Q3 earnings preview. The company’s volumes continued to soften through the quarter and Barclays is “quite a bit below the Street,” largely on weaker retail transaction revenues, the analyst said. The firm said that in the near term and with the election approaching, investors continue to focus on potential regulatory changes as an incremental catalyst for the shares.

GALAXY DIGITAL INITIATED WITH BUY: H.C. Wainwright initiated coverage of Galaxy Digital (BRPHF) on Thursday with a Buy rating and C$24 price target. Galaxy Digital is a full-service financial services firm focused on the digital asset ecosystem, the analyst said. The firm said Galaxy has evolved into one of the preeminent providers of institutional-grade digital asset and blockchain-based products and services geared towards institutions and accredited investors seeking to gain exposure to crypto.

CRYPTO STOCK PLAYS: Publicly traded companies in the space include Bit Digital (BTBT), Coinbase, Core Scientific (CORZ), Greenidge Generation (GREE), Mara Holdings (MARA), MicroStrategy (MSTR), Riot Platforms (RIOT), Stronghold Digital Mining (SDIG) and TeraWulf (WULF).

PRICE ACTION: As of time of writing, bitcoin dropped about 1% this week to $61,600 in U.S. dollars, according to CoinDesk.