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.
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COINBASE PARTNERS WITH BLOCK’S BITKEY WALLET: In a Thursday blog post, Coinbase (COIN) announced an international partnership spanning six continents with Bitkey, the self-custody bitcoin wallet built by Block (SQ).
The company said, "This alliance is a key step towards our goal of powering the bitcoin economy. Coinbase Pay offers a simple and secure way for users to fund their accounts with crypto within apps, wallets, or marketplaces. By accepting your users’ preferred payment methods already saved in their Coinbase accounts, users enjoy seamless fiat-to-crypto onramps and businesses benefit from increased conversion rates and product adoption. In parallel, we are looking forward to Bitkey’s global beta program which also launches sign ups today. Customers participating in the global beta program will see a game-changing feature that allows you to effortlessly move your bitcoin from centralized exchanges to the secure Bitkey self-custody wallet. When Bitkey moves into its wider public launch later this year, customers will also be able to seamlessly buy bitcoin and initiate the transfer of their bitcoin bought on Coinbase to their self-custody Bitkey wallet, all within the Bitkey wallet using Coinbase Pay."
The companies intend to make the feature available to joint Bitkey and Coinbase customers in multiple global markets across six continents including the US, Canada, the UK, Brazil, and Australia, among other global markets where Coinbase and Bitkey serve customers.
Additionally, Mizuho analyst Dan Dolev reported Thursday. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust will utilize Coinbase Custody as its custodian, according to the filing, which comes after the Securities and Exchange Commission has rejected all previous applications for spot bitcoin ETFs. BlackRock launched a spot bitcoin private trust for institutional clients in the U.S. last year.
BITFARMS INCREASES HASHRATE TO 5.3 EH/S: Bitfarms (BITF) announced Monday it has reached a new hashrate high of 5.3 EH/s, up 6% from May 31.
"The first tranche of 2,982 MicroBT miners were installed and began hashing last week at our Rio Cuarto farm in Argentina. These miners contributed an additional 290 PH/s driving our hashrate to 5.3 EH/s," said Ben Gagnon, CMO. "With these new installations, operating capacity increased to 29 MW at Rio Cuarto and to 207 MW company-wide. An additional 3,300 miners are en route to Rio Cuarto and will improve production and energy efficiency at this facilty when installed in July."
MARATHON WARNS ON CRYPTO SCAMS: Marathon Digital (MARA) issued a warning to the public on Thursday to be alert for cryptocurrency scams.
"The company has become aware of multiple fraudulent websites and apps claiming to be affiliated with Marathon Digital Holdings, as well as fraudulent communications by individuals purporting to be Marathon employees. The company has also been aware of fraudulent stock certificates written in foreign languages allegedly being sold by third parties in at least Russia, if not other foreign countries. Please note that Marathon does not offer accounts for individual investors to participate in cryptocurrency mining, and we do not accept money from individual investors. If you have been contacted by any person purporting to be acting on behalf of, or in connection with, Marathon to invest in cryptocurrency mining, be aware that these individuals are not authorized representatives of Marathon. Please be further aware that the company does not issue stock certificates in any language nor does it sell its stock directly to individuals – these certificates are fraudulent, and the public should be forewarned to not send money to any party purporting to sell stock or other securities on behalf of Marathon," the company stated.
BIT DIGITAL PRICE TARGET RAISED: H.C. Wainwright analyst Kevin Dede raised the firm’s price target on Bit Digital (BTBT) on Wednesday to $4 from $3 and kept a Buy rating on the shares after the company reported Q1 revenue of $8.3M, up from $7.8M in Q4 and beat the firm’s $7.5M estimate. Bit Digital’s May press release highlighted an agreement with GreenBlocks for 8.25MW of new hosting capacity at a facility in Reykjanesbaer, Iceland, and the existing site expansion follows an incremental 10MW at Coinmint and an additional 4MW at Blockbreakers, notef the firm. The analyst said these agreements "leave us comfortable regarding the company’s 2.6 Eh/s 2023 target," while suggesting more mining expansion could come ahead of the halving at "a measured, capital conscious, non-dilutive pace."
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. Ideanomics (IDEX), Riot Platforms (RIOT), Overstock (OSTK), 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 dropped roughly 4% this week to $25,508 in U.S. dollars, according to CoinDesk.
Published first on TheFly
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