The Intersection: Crypto and Wall Street This Week - InvestingChannel

The Intersection: Crypto and Wall Street 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. 1. COLLEGE ENDOWMENTS INVEST IN CRYPTO: The endowments of major research universities, including Harvard University, Stanford University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of North Carolina, have invested in at least one cryptocurrency fund, signaling crypto’s growing acceptance among institutions, the Information reported Wednesday. While many institutions have been hesitant to invest directly in cryptocurrency due to lack of technical knowledge and uncertainty over secure storage of the assets, the move shows that several of the most high-profile institutions in the U.S. are finally ready to enter the cryptocurrency sector. 2. CRYPTO THEFT HITS ROUGHLY $1B: Theft of cryptocurrencies through hacking of exchanges and trading platforms grew to $927M in the first nine month of the year, up about 250% from the level seen in 2017, the New York Post reported Wednesday, citing a CipherTrace report. The report also showed a steadily increasing number of smaller thefts in the range of $20M to $60M, totaling $173M in the third quarter. 3. ECONOMIST CRITICIZES CRYPTO: Global economist Nouriel Roubini testified in front of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Community Affairs issuing warnings on multiple aspects of cryptocurrency, CNBC reported Thursday. “Crypto is the mother or father of all scams and bubbles,” he said, calling out “scammers” who he claims tapped into “clueless retail investors’ FOMO,” and then took them for a ride with “scammy crappy assets at the peak that then went into a bust and crash — in a matter of months — like you have not seen in any history of financial bubbles.” Roubini also took on blockchain saying, “Now that the crypto bloodbath is in full view the new refuge of the crypto scoundrels is ‘blockchain,’ the technology underlying crypto that is now alleged to be the cure of all global problems, including poverty, famines and even diseases. But as discussed in detail below blockchain is the most over-hyped — and least useful — technology in human history. ” 4. PLASTIC SURGEON BUYS BITHUMB STAKE: BK Global Consortium, which is led by plastic surgeon and startup investor Kim Byung-gun, has agreed to purchase 50% plus one share of BTC Holding, the largest investor in the operator of Bithumb, one of South Korea’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, Bloomberg reported Friday. BK Global Consortium, which was already the fifth-largest shareholder of BTC Holding, will pay 400B won, or $352M, for the stake. 5. IDEANOMICS SIGNS JV: On Tuesday, Ideanomics (SSC) announced that it has entered into a joint venture agreement with TPJ to create Ideanomics Resources. The company said, “The 75% Ideanomics owned joint venture has been created to unlock value in the commodities and energy sectors by leveraging and utilizing the Ideanomics Platform-as-a-Service solutions, a suite of strong multi-layer fintech technologies leveraging blockchain and artificial intelligence.” The joint venture will be responsible for establishing a commodity and energy digital asset exchange and will initially focus on Africa and the Middle East. 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, Riot Blockchain (RIOT), 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 about 4.9% this week to $6,232 in U.S. dollars, according to CoinDesk. WANT BITCOIN NEWS ALERTS?: To receive alerts on stories relating to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, Fly subscribers can enter “Bitcoin” into the “Add symbols” box of their portfolios.

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