BitDigest - Friday March 5, 2021
Crypto sells down in risk-off market
Vietnam plans to investigate the crypto industry and develop regulatory policies
Square acquires Tidal streaming service with plans to disrupt music industry
Mining Stock Performance
🅱️Many investors have been looking to publicly traded miners as proxies for bitcoin. While BTC is up 425% over the past year, mining stocks have outperformed the underlying coin price with returns as high as 3000%. That said, there is real concern that miner pricing is frothy due to their valuations based on future hashing capacity (something I will address next week). For now, I want to take a look at the impact of the recent market resetting and how the miners have fared. Below you will see last night’s closing price for each of the North American publicly traded miners compared to their respective 52-week highs and corresponding decline percentage. As a comparison bitcoin has declined 17% since its $58,000 high on February 21st.
The Headlines
Vietnam's Warns Against Crypto Investments and Plans to Develop Local Regulations
Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance has warned the public about the risks of crypto investments cautioning users that the country “has not adopted any legislation related to the issuance, trading, and exchange of virtual currencies and virtual assets,” and announced plans to established a dedicated research group to investigate the crypto industry and develop crypto regulation policies in the country.
BitGo has received the New York Department of Financial Services 28th ‘BitLicense’ charter allowing the institutional custodian and trading firm to operate as an independent, regulated qualified custodian under New York State Banking Law.
MARA Announced Hashing Capacity
📈Marathon Digital Holdings (NASDAQ: MARA) announced its mining equipment will reach 1.4 Ehash/s in hashing capacity by the end of March. They also released a new logo as part of their name change from Marathon Patent Group.
Gemini Develops Unified Crypto Solution for Fund Managers
Gemini has introduced Gemini Fund Solution, a unified platform providing fund managers with custody, clearing, trade execution, and other capital markets services specifically designed for crypto ETFs, closed-end funds (CEFs), and other fund vehicles.
Charles Schwab Exploring White-label Crypto Offering
📈Investment brokerage firm Charles Schwab (NYSE: SCHW) is exploring how it can offer crypto trading to its customers through a partnership with a yet to be determined crypto firm.
Square's Looking to Use Blockchain to Transform Music Industry
📈🐦Fintech payment platform Square (NASDAQ: SQ) announced the decision to but a majority stake in rapper Jay-Z’s Tidal music streaming service for $298 million and is looking to develop an “entirely new listening experiences to bring fans closer together, simple integrations for merch sales, modern collaboration tools, and new complementary revenue streams” using blockchain technology.
Blockchain Association Working to Educate Biden Administration on Real Value of Crypto Networks
📺The Blockchain Association, a leading digital currency and blockchain advocacy group, is scheduling meetings with key members of the Biden Administration to educate them on the value of crypt networks, “beyond the financing of criminal enterprises,” ahead of any new regulatory decisions.
Market Data
Goldman Clients Looking to Increase Crypto Exposure
Goldman Sachs released a client survey finding that 40% of respondents already have crypto exposure and 61% expect their digital asset holdings to increase.
Exchange, Custody and Product News
Digital currency exchange ByBit is ceasing trading operations in the UK to comply with the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) ban on crypto derivatives,
Thoughts on the Ecosystem
Ron Barron Does Not Get Bitcoin
🐦📺Investor Ron Barron is not investing in bitcoin (and gold) calling it a “speculative investment” but admitting he does not understand it and prefers to invest in growth stock.
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BitDigest is a weekday news update on digital currencies and blockchain technology for friends and partners of Parsons & Whittemore, a single family office based in Rye Brook, New York. Receipt of BitDigest is by approval of the Author. The commentary, analysis, opinions and recommendations in this newsletter represent the personal and subjective views of the Author, and are subject to change at any time without notice. The information provided in this newsletter is obtained from sources which the Author believes to be reliable. However, the Author has not independently verified or otherwise investigated all such information. Neither the Author nor any of the Author's affiliates make any guarantee or other promise as to any results that may be obtained from reading this newsletter. While past performance may be analyzed in this newsletter, past performance should not be considered indicative of future performance. No reader should make any investment decision without first consulting his or her own financial advisor and conducting his or her own research and due diligence. The Author is not making a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any securities of any kind.