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.

ANALYST CONFIRMS VIEW OF BITCOIN HITTING $200,000 BY 2025: On Thursday, Bernstein said it remains “convinced in our bitcoin new cycle thesis” and moved up the firm’s bitcoin price forecast for 2025 to $200,000 to reflect the positive surprise from bitcoin ETF flows since launch. Bears argue the ETF bitcoin trade is done and most of the early bitcoin ETF allocations were driven by retail investors, which the analyst admits “is true”. However, bears are missing that bitcoin ETFs are on the cusp of approvals at major wirehouses and large private bank platforms in Q3 or Q4 and that the institutional basis trade looks “like the ‘trojan horse’ for adoption, and these investors are in the process of evaluating ‘net long’ positions,” the analyst contended. The firm is expecting Bitcoin to rise to a cycle high of about $200,000 by 2025, $500,000 by 2029 and $1M by 2033. (MSTR) announced that, during the period between April 27 and June 19, MicroStrategy acquired approximately 11,931 bitcoins for approximately $786M in cash, at an average price of approximately $65,883 per bitcoin, inclusive of fees and expenses. As of June 20, MicroStrategy, together with its subsidiaries, held an aggregate of approximately 226,331 bitcoins, which were acquired at an aggregate purchase price of approximately $8.33B and an average purchase price of approximately $36,798 per bitcoin, inclusive of fees and expenses. (read more)

Following the news, TD Cowen raised the firm’s price target on MicroStrategy to $1,880 from $1,450 and kept a Buy rating on the shares. Following last week’s convertible notes offering, MicroStrategy has acquired another 12,000 bitcoins, the analyst said. The firm said this is not a short-term trading strategy, but rather management’s belief that bitcoin will ultimately prove a superior store of value. MicroStrategy remains an attractive vehicle for investors looking to gain bitcoin exposure, contended TD. (read more)

CLEANSPARK TO ACQUIRE FIVE BITCOIN MINING FACILITIES: On Tuesday, CleanSpark (CLSK) announced it has entered into definitive agreements to acquire five turnkey bitcoin mining facilities in rural Georgia for a cash payment of $25.8M. The purchase is expected to close immediately, with the operating hashrate of the combined facilities anticipated to exceed 3.7 exahashes per second upon full installation of the latest generation S21 pro miners. “Our acquisition of these five new mining sites marks a significant milestone in our strategic growth plan and represents the leading edge of nearly one gigawatt of new opportunities being analyzed by our teams,” said Zach Bradford, CEO. “These sites not only enhance the load balancing capabilities for the local cities we work with, but lock in the achievement of our mid-year target of achieving 20 EH/s of operating hashrate. This achievement underscores our commitment to scaling efficiently and sustainably and we are excited to bring these facilities into the CleanSpark way of mining bitcoin. We are confident in our continued ability to drive shareholder value and innovation in the bitcoin mining industry.” (read more)

COINBASE PRICE TARGET RAISE: On Sunday, BofA raised the firm’s price target on Coinbase (COIN) to $259 from $217 and kept a Neutral rating on the shares after the company hosted its State of Crypto Summit 2024 with presentations by various industry experts and early cryptocurrency adopters in the space, including its Founder and CEO Brian Armstrong. Topics included blockchain use cases and innovation, the role of crypto in investor portfolios, and the positively changing regulatory environment. The firm raised its price objective driven by transaction-based revenue. (read more)

HUT 8 PRICE TARGET RAISE: On Friday, Benchmark raised the firm’s price target on Hut 8 Corp. (HUT) to $17 from $12 and kept a Buy rating on the shares. The Hut 8 analyst day event shed additional light on the company’s stated view of itself as not just a bitcoin miner, but rather as an infrastructure company that seeks to create value at the intersection of energy and data center management, while leveraging its reported total energy capacity under management of 1,162 MW at the end of April for various use cases, including AI, 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 (SDIG) and TeraWulf (WULF).

PRICE ACTION: As of time of writing, bitcoin dropped about 3% this week to $63,756 in U.S. dollars, according to CoinDesk.