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.

MARATHON REPORTS Q3 EARNINGS: On Wednesday, Marathon Digital (MARA) reported third quarter earnings per share of 35c on revenue of $97.8M, which compared to analyst estimates of a loss per share of (11c) on revenue of $103.04M. “We made significant progress on our 2023 strategic priorities in the third quarter,” said CEO Fred Thiel. “First, we grew our energized hash rate 8% quarter-over-quarter to 19.1 exahashes. In addition, our new facility in Garden City started energizing last week and is expected to be fully operational later this month. Second, we experienced significantly higher uptime as optimization efforts helped increase our U.S. average operational hash rate 18% from last quarter to 14.2 exahashes. Third, we energized our first joint venture and our first international location in the UAE. This initial success has helped open new opportunities, and we recently entered into a new joint venture in Paraguay powered by hydroelectricity. In preparation for next year’s halving, we took proactive measures to strengthen our financial position during the quarter. The $417M note exchange completed in September reduced our long-term debt by 56% and captured a total of approximately $101M in cash savings for our shareholders. For the first time in two years, our combined cash and bitcoin holdings exceeded our debt at the quarter’s end. Looking ahead, we should reach 26 exahash by year-end 2023, and we expect to grow our hash rate by approximately 30% in 2024.” (read more)

Additionally on Tuesday, Marathon announced the launch of its second international deployment with a 27 megawatt bitcoin mining project in Paraguay that is completely powered by renewable, hydro energy. The first miners are onsite and currently being prepared for installation and energization. In October, Marathon entered into an agreement with Penguin Infrastructure Holding to launch a bitcoin mining project near Paraguay’s Itaipu Dam. Itaipu Dam has an installed generation capacity of 14 gigawatts and is the second largest hydroelectric dam in the world by annual production. This project, which is structured as a joint venture, will be built out in two stages. The first stage will utilize approximately seven megawatts to power approximately 0.3 EH/s of Marathon’s miners and is expected to be energized in November. The second phase will utilize approximately 20 megawatts to power approximately 0.8 EH/s of Marathon’s miners and is expected to come online in 2024. Over the coming months, Marathon will be working with Penguin Group to bring the full 1.1 EH/s online. (read more)

BITFARMS REPORTS Q3 RESULTS: On Tuesday, Bitfarms (BITF) reported Q3 loss per share of (7c) on revenue of $34.6M, which compared to a loss per share of (40c) on revenue of $33.25M for the same period last year. The company held $47M in cash and 703 bitcoin valued at approximately $19M based upon a bitcoin price of approximately $27,000 as of September 30. “During the third quarter of 2023, we increased operating capacity by 27 MW to 234 MW and by another 6 MW to 240 MW in October 2023. We executed plans to opportunistically expand farms with low-cost hydro power in Quebec and Latin America, while we continued to prudently strengthen balance sheet liquidity preparing for the next BTC Halving,” said CEO Geoff Morphy. “We remain committed to investing in new facilities and miner upgrades at pricing with attractive returns. Now, with the introduction of higher efficiency, lower-priced miners, we plan to move aggressively to capitalize on more competitive pricing for equipment upgrades.” (read more)

COINBASE PRICE TARGET RAISE: On Friday, Mizuho raised the firm’s price target on Coinbase (COIN) to $31 from $27 and kept an Underperform rating on the shares. The analyst sees “significant downside from here” with the shares up 170% year-to-date. Lingering retail fatigue threatens Coinbase’s most attractive revenue stream over the longer-term, the analyst said, However, the firm also sees several near-term positives, including higher spreads, stabilizing retail market share versus Robinhood (HOOD) in Q3, and improving cost controls. (read more)

BITCOIN DEPOT INITIATED WITH BUY: H.C. Wainwright initiated coverage of Bitcoin Depot (BTM) on Monday with a Buy rating and $6 price target. Bitcoin Depot is the largest bitcoin ATM operator in North America with over 6,350 kiosks installed across the U.S. and Canada, the analyst said. The firm stated the company is one of the very few investment vehicles that provides investors with exposure to the secular growth in bitcoin adoption, and a “durable and growing earnings stream” that isn’t directly correlated to bitcoin price levels. It sees a “significant disconnect” between Bitcoin Depot’s valuation and its “strong fundamentals, presenting an attractive entry point for investors.” (read more)

Additionally on Thursday, Bitcoin Depot announced its partnership with CORD Financial Services to distribute Bitcoin Depot kiosks across the U.S. CORD and Bitcoin Depot will secure Bitcoin ATM placements within CORD’s established base of customers and to customers new to CORD. (read more)

BLACKROCK REGISTERS FOR ETHEREUM TRUST: BlackRock (BLK) has registered to form an ethereum trust, a possible first step toward requesting that regulators approve an ETF tied to the cryptocurrency, Reuters’ Suzanne McGee reported Thursday. The asset management giant registered the iShares Ethereum Trust as a Delaware statutory trust this week, the report said, noting that Nasdaq (NDAQ) also filed a proposal to list and trade shares of the trust. (read more)

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

PRICE ACTION: As of time of writing, bitcoin rose roughly 6% this week to $36,964 in U.S. dollars, according to CoinDesk.