Here’s What You Missed in Crypto This Week

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. 

BINANCE SEEKS DISMISSAL OF CFTC COMPLAINT: Cryptocurrency exchange Binance and CEO Changpeng Zhao filed a motion to dismiss a complaint by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Reuters’ Juby Babu and Shubham Kalia reported Friday, citing a court filing. The agency sued Binance, Zhao and former CCO Samuel Lim in March, claiming they breached the Commodity Exchange Act and other federal regulations as well as operated an “illegal” exchange with a “sham” compliance program. Binance contended the case should be dismissed as it seeks to regulate foreign corporations that reside and operate outside the U.S. The company cited a 2007 ruling that said, “United States law governs domestically but does not rule the world.” (read more)

TD COWEN STARTS MICROSTRATEGY AT OUTPERFORM: TD Cowen analyst Lance Vitanza initiated coverage of MicroStrategy (MSTR) on Wednesday with an Outperform rating and $520 price target. MicroStrategy is a leading provider of Business Intelligence software, with “strong positioning” in that “attractive” software space, but with the “twist” that it uses all its retained earnings, and then some, to buy and hold bitcoins, the analyst said. This is not a short-term trading strategy, but rather reflects a belief that ultimately, bitcoin will prove a superior store of value relative to metals and fiat currencies, noted the firm, which sees MicroStrategy as “an attractive vehicle for investors looking to gain Bitcoin exposure.” (read more)

COINBASE PRICE TARGET RAISES: Citi analyst Peter Christiansen raised the firm’s price target on Coinbase (COIN) on Monday to $105 from $65 and kept a Neutral rating on the shares. Despite positive elements of Ripple’s surprise ruling and subsequent momentum for crypto stocks, the firm does not believe investors should be aggressive on recent momentum. The firm does believe that the ruling’s positive bent on exchange activity is a key positive, perhaps buying time until new legislation potentially occurs. (read more)

Meanwhile on Tuesday, BofA raised the firm’s price target on Coinbase to $58 from $49 and kept an Underperform rating on the shares. Coinbase shares have rallied 15% since the XRP decision, but the firm thinks this reaction could be overstated as “legal uncertainty remains” and the implications of the XRP ruling for Coinbase are “difficult to determine.” BofA continues to expect Coinbase to miss Q2 top-line estimates, the analyst added. (read more)

STRONGHOLD BUYS BITCOIN MINERS: Stronghold Digital Mining (SDIG) and Canaan (CAN) announced Thursday an agreement whereby Stronghold has purchased from Canaan 2,000 new, latest-generation A1346 bitcoin miners for a total purchase price of approximately $3M. The miners are expected to be delivered during the third quarter for use at Stronghold’s Panther Creek Facility. Stronghold has also amended and expanded its existing hosting agreement with Cantaloupe Digital, a subsidiary of Canaan, with the addition of 2,000 A1346 miners under the same terms as those of the previously announced agreement.

“We are very excited to expand our relationship with Canaan through the purchase of the A1346 miners, their most efficient Bitcoin miners,” said Greg Beard, Stronghold CEO. “These miners are among our best performers in our air-cooled StrongBox containers and provide an attractive value proposition given the combination of high hash rate, energy efficiency, and price point. The purchase of these miners further demonstrates our extreme focus on capital efficiency.” (read more)

CANTOR STARTS TERAWULF WITH BUY: Cantor Fitzgerald initiated coverage of TeraWulf (WULF) on Friday with an Overweight rating and $4 price target. The analyst believes the company is well positioned to increase its self-mining hash rate by 58% in just six months, following a recent “best-in-class” mining purchase agreement. TeraWulf has taken significant strides to both improve its balance sheet health and chart a path for prudent scaling, said the firm, who believes the stock may be overlooked by investors. Cantor thinks there may be significant upside in TeraWulf shares. (read more)

Additionally on Monday, B. Riley analyst Lucas Pipes raised the firm’s price target on TeraWulf to $5 from $3 and kept a Buy rating on the shares. The analyst believes the recent appreciation in digital asset mining equities reflects more bullish views on bitcoin, with recent pricing stability increasing confidence. The firm updated estimates for TeraWulf to reflect the higher hash rate. As the company continues to scale, it has shown strong execution in recent months from both a utilization and power cos perspective, the analyst said. (read more)

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

PRICE ACTION: As of time of writing, bitcoin dropped roughly 2% this week to $29,293 in U.S. dollars, according to CoinDesk.