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.
MICROSTRATEGY BUYS MORE BITCOIN: MicroStrategy (MSTR) announced Thursday that during the period between November 29 and December 8, it purchased approximately 1,434 bitcoins for approximately $82.4M in cash, at an average price of approximately $57,477 per bitcoin, inclusive of fees and expenses. As of December 8, the company held 122,478 bitcoins that were acquired at an aggregate purchase price of $3.66B and an average purchase price of approximately $29,861 per bitcoin, inclusive of fees and expenses. MicroStrategy also announced that, during the period between November 29 and December 8, it issued and sold an aggregate of 119,828 shares under its open market sale agreement, at an average gross price per share of $693.10, for aggregate net proceeds of $82.4M.
CLEANSPARK PRODUCES 218 BITCOIN IN NOVEMBER: CleanSpark (CLSK) released its unaudited bitcoin production and operations update on Monday for the calendar year-to-date ending November 30, 2021. November monthly production was 218 bitcoin and year-to-date production ending November 30 was 1,301. Total bitcoin holdings as of November 30 was 838 and total bitcoin converted for operational growth in 2021 was 478. The company has deployed a fleet of approximately 12,900 latest-generation bitcoin miners with a total hashrate of 1.3 EH/s.
Additionally on Thursday, CleanSpark announced purchase of immersion cooling infrastructure for its Norcross bitcoin mining facility. Phased installation starts immediately, with the first 8 MW expected to go live in February. The new data center's immersion cooling technology is expected to increase bitcoin mining efficiency by 20% or more and is also expected to reduce operational expenses. Upon completion, the 20 MW project will consist of 180 liquid-filled tanks, with each tank holding 33 units of the Antminer S19j Pro machines immersed in a proprietary cooling liquid.
COINBASE ‘MAKING DEFI MORE ACCESSIBLE’: Rhea Kaw, Senior Product Manager at Coinbase (COIN), stated in a Thursday blog post: "Today we're introducing a new way for Coinbase's global customers to put their crypto to work and earn yield. We are making DeFi more accessible, enabling eligible customers in more than 70 countries to access the attractive yields of DeFi from their Dai with no fees, lockups, or set-up hassle... Starting today, you'll be able to earn DeFi yield on Dai, a stablecoin that is designed to be pegged to the US Dollar... When you opt in to earn DeFi yield, your Dai is deposited into Compound Finance, an industry-leading DeFi protocol. The offered APY varies based on the rates from Compound and will automatically update to reflect changes in the market. Compound's rates are variable - as an example, during the month of October, the APY for supplying DAI fluctuated between 2.83% and 5.39%. These higher rates reflect both the unique access to global liquidity and increased risk that can come with DeFi."
VOYAGER, USIO EXTEND PARTNERSHIP: Usio (USIO) announced Tuesday that it extended an exclusive agreement to provide Automated Clearing House payment solutions to cryptocurrency platform Voyager Digital (VYGVF) for another three years, continuing a relationship that began in 2018. Stephen Ehrlich, CEO and co-founder of Voyager, noted, “Usio has been a trusted Voyager partner from the inception of our company. ACH is an integral component of our app and Usio provides efficient, secure transfers on behalf of our customers. As a NACHA certified processor, Usio has the means to satisfy the needs of our rapidly expanding customer base. Extending this relationship for three years provides us with the reliable payment technology and dedicated team we need to continue to build out our platform. We are excited to continue working with Usio to grow our partnership and deliver more exciting products and solutions, like our innovative debit card that is based on the stable coin USDC.”
PHUNWARE BUYS 100 BITCOIN: Phunware (PHUN) announced Thursday it has purchased an additional 100 bitcoin for approximately $4,975,000 in cash at an average price of approximately $49,750 per bitcoin, inclusive of fees and expenses. As of December 9, 2021, Phunware holds an aggregate of approximately 630 bitcoin, which were acquired at an aggregate purchase price of approximately $36.8M and an average purchase price of approximately $58,513 per bitcoin, inclusive of fees and expenses.
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), Ideanomics (IDEX), Riot Blockchain (RIOT), Pareteum (TEUM) and SRAX (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 %7 this week at $49,555 in U.S. dollars, according to TradeBlock.
