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.

CLEANSPARK TO LAUNCH IN-HOUSE CRYPTO TRADING DESK: Bitcoin miner CleanSpark (CLSK) is planning to introduce an in-house trading desk in 2024 to maximize returns from its cryptocurrency holdings, Bloomberg’s David Pan reported Tuesday.  “We really think that doing it ourselves is the best way especially with the large bitcoin balance we have,” Zachary Bradford, CEO, said in an interview. “It just makes financial sense to do it in-house.”  The move comes as miners retain more bitcoin amid optimism that the U.S. will approve an exchange-traded fund physically backed by the cryptocurrency. (read more)

CANAAN SECURES FOLLOW-ON ORDERS FROM CIPHER, STRONGHOLD: Canaan (CAN) announced Wednesday that it has secured follow-on purchase orders from joint venture entities of Cipher Mining (CIFR) and from Stronghold Digital Mining (SDIG). The orders, which combined involve the purchase of over 17,000 bitcoin mining machines, build upon Canaan’s existing relationships with Cipher and Stronghold. On December 29, Cipher entered into an agreement whereby two joint venture entities in which Cipher has a 49% interest purchased from Canaan 16,700 A1466 model mining machines with an average hash rate of 150T/s. These machines are to be delivered in April and May for use at Cipher’s Bear and Chief data centers, both located in Texas. The 11,000 A1346 model mining machines which were purchased on May 9, have been delivered and installed at Cipher’s Odessa data center. On December 26, Stronghold entered into an agreement whereby Stronghold has purchased from Canaan 1,100 A1346 model mining machines with an average hash rate of 123T/s. These are to be delivered by January for use at Stronghold’s Scrubgrass Plant. Additionally, Stronghold has an option to purchase an additional 2,500 A1466 model mining machines with an average hash rate of 140T/s-150T/s. The 2,000 A1346 model mining machines which were purchased on July 27 have been delivered and installed at Stronghold’s Patha Creek Plant. (read more)

Stronghold announced Tuesday that it executed agreements to purchase an aggregate of 5,000 bitcoin miners on December 26, for approximately $8.5M, which included the Canaan deal. These miners are expected to provide Stronghold with approximately 600 PH/s of cumulative hash rate capacity with average efficiency of 25 J/T. The purchased miners include 2,800 new Bitmain S19K Pro miners purchased from Luxor Technology Corporation, 1,100 new MicroBT Whastminer M50 miners purchased from Luxor, and the 1,100 new Avalon A1346 miners purchased from Canaan. Stronghold funded the purchases with proceeds from the company’s recently announced private placement, and the delivery of all purchased miners is expected no later than January 2024. (read more)

GOLDMAN EYES ROLE IN BITCOIN ETFS: Goldman Sachs (GS) is in talks to be an “authorized participant” for the bitcoin ETFs that BlackRock (BLK) and Grayscale want to introduce in the U.S. if the SEC approves them, CoinDesk’s Ian Allison reported Wednesday, citing two people familiar with the situation. The role, which involves creating and redeeming ETF shares to ensure the products trade in lockstep with their underlying assets, is “one of the most important jobs in the multi-trillion-dollar ETF industry,” the report said. (read more)

COINBASE PRICE TARGET RAISED: TD Cowen raised the firm’s price target on Coinbase (COIN) on Friday to $75 from $39 and kept an Underperform rating on the shares. The firm thinks the shares carry an excessive market cap against their 2024 outlook of low visibility on trading activity, USDC revenue to decline year-over-year, limited direct revenue from potential spot ETFs, and expectations for regulatory risk to return as an overhang. (read more)

ANALYST SAYS PRICE DIPS ARE OPPORTUNITY TO BUY BITCOIN: Bernstein told investors in a Wednesday research note that bitcoin corrected 6% on rumors of an ETF rejection by an independent crypto trading firm’s report. This was more of a hypothetical opinion, the firm said, adding it believes in view of the SEC following the ruling of the court in the Grayscale case, the agency has limited room but to approve the ETF. The firm believes that all price dips to the ETF are market opportunities to buy bitcoin and bitcoin miners. (BTBT), Coinbase, Core Scientific (CORZ), Greenidge Generation (GREE), Marathon Digital (MARA), MicroStrategy (MSTR), Riot Platforms (RIOT), Stronghold Digital Mining and TeraWulf (WULF).

PRICE ACTION: As of time of writing, bitcoin rose roughly 4% this week to $43,667 in U.S. dollars, according to CoinDesk.