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.
VODAFONE DEPARTS LIBRA ASSOCIATION: CNBC's Kate Rooney and Salvador Rodriguez reported Tuesday that telecommunications company Vodafone (VOD) has left Facebook's (FB) Libra Association. "We can confirm that Vodafone is no longer a member of the Libra Association. Although the makeup of the Association members may change over time, the design of Libra's governance and technology ensures the Libra payment system will remain resilient," the Libra Association said in a statement, according to CNBC. Vodafone, which has not ruled out the possibility of working with the Association in the future, is the eighth to drop out of the digital currency project.
LIBRA TRIGGERS BANKS TO STUDY CRYPTO: Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency spurred central banks to set up a new group to study the potential for issuing their own digital currencies, Reuters' Leika Kihara and Takahiko Wada reported Wednesday, citing comments made by Hiromi Yamaoka, former head of the Bank of Japan's division overseeing payment and settlement systems. The central banks of Britain, the euro zone, Japan, Canada, Sweden and Switzerland on Tuesday announced a plan to share experiences to look at the case for issuing digital currencies, amid a growing debate over the future of money, and Yamaoka says the decision is a sign of how Libra has triggered a global competition among central banks to make their currencies more appealing.
SQUARE INTRODUCES LIGHTNING DEVELOPMENT KIT: In a Tuesday blog post, the Square (SQ) Crypto team announced it would launch Lightning Development Kit tools for bitcoin wallet developers. The post said, in part, “For bitcoin to become a widely used global currency — one that can’t be stopped, tampered with, or rigged in anyone’s favor — improvements to bitcoin’s UX, security, privacy, and scaling are required…We spoke with dozens of wallet developers. What we heard was a desire for flexibility when integrating Lightning. Wallets and applications require different key store and backup mechanisms, security approaches, UX tradeoffs, and more. That means the solution is building for more wallets, not fewer. So rather than create a standalone Lightning node, we’re building a Lightning Development Kit that gives wallet and application developers a convenient way to create custom experiences. LDK will include an API, language bindings, demo apps, and anything else that makes integrating Lightning easy, safe, and configurable.”
FORMER RIOT CEO SETTLES WITH SEC: The Securities and Exchange Commission reached agreements to settle with three defendants, including former Riot Blockchain (RIOT) CEO John O’Rourke, over “lucrative market manipulation”, CNBC’s Jennifer Schlesinger reported Tuesday. The settlement is unrelated to Riot and comes after the SEC charged a group of 10 individuals and 10 associated entities in September 2018. The agency has reached agreements with all defendants except one, including Florida businessman Barry Honig, once the largest investor in Riot.
BITCOIN ACCEPTANCE UNCHANGED: Morgan Stanley analyst James Faucette said on Thursday that PayPal (PYPL) added another eight merchants in the fourth quarter, which is the most among the digital wallets he tracks. PayPal is now accepted at 79% of the top 500 internet retailers in the U.S., which compares to Amazon Pay (AMZN) being accepted at 14% of those merchants and Bitcoin acceptance being unchanged at 6 of the top 500 internet retailers, according to Faucette.
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. Overstock (OSTK), DPW Holdings (DPW), Kodak (KODK), Ideanomics (IDEX), Riot Blockchain, Pareteum (TEUM) and Social Reality (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 4.1% this week to $8,471 in U.S. dollars, according to TradeBlock.
