Strengths
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the best performer for the week was Four, which rose 14.52%.
- Brevan Howard Asset Management is hiring David Kalk, an alum of Peter Thiel’s family office, as a portfolio manager for its multi-strategy digital asset fund. Kalk will launch a new portfolio within the fund to continue investing in digital assets, as he did at his previous firm, Reflexive Capital, according to Bloomberg.
- While Bitcoin ETFs have been a breakout success since launching in January of last year, Ether funds have been slower to gain momentum. According to Bloomberg, the $11.3 billion BlackRock fund trading under the ticker ETHA is now the largest among more than 20 Ether-focused products tracked.
Weaknesses
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the worst performer for the week was FartCoin, down 22%.
- Coinbase Global shares fell after the company reported lower-than-estimated second-quarter revenue amid a drop in digital asset market volatility. Revenue increased 3.3% year over year to $1.5 billion, which was still lower than analysts’ estimates of $1.59 billion, according to Bloomberg.
- Bitcoin declined for a fifth straight session, dropping as much as 2.2% to $113,979, its lowest level in three weeks. The broader crypto market is retreating after topping $4 trillion in total market capitalization in July, with Ether falling as much as 4.5% to $3,567, writes Bloomberg.
Opportunities
- Coinbase is in advanced talks to acquire India’s CoinDCX at a valuation below $1 billion, according to two unidentified sources familiar with the development. Coinbase already holds stakes in both CoinDCX and its rival Coinswitch, Bloomberg reports.
- Bitmain Technologies plans to open its first U.S. facility within the next few months, establishing a new headquarters and assembly line in either Texas or Florida. The company expects local production to accelerate deliveries and repairs for U.S. customers, according to Bloomberg.
- FalconX is expanding into Latin America to meet growing institutional demand for cryptocurrencies in the region. The head of Americas Sales at FalconX stated that “Latin America is one of the fastest-growing regions for crypto adoption,” driven by regulatory frameworks, forward-thinking institutions, and economic factors, Bloomberg reports.
Threats
- Tyler Winklevoss accused JPMorgan Chase & Co. of halting the onboarding of his crypto exchange, Gemini, as a customer in response to his recent criticism of the bank. Winklevoss claimed that JPMorgan’s decision to charge fintech companies for accessing customers’ bank account information will “bankrupt fintechs” that facilitate linking bank accounts to crypto platforms, according to Bloomberg.
- An appeals court overturned the conviction of a former OpenSea employee in the first insider trading case involving NFTs. A three-judge panel ruled that the jury was wrongly instructed to consider NFT information as “OpenSea’s property” under the wire fraud statute, Bloomberg reports.
- Riot Platforms shares dropped 8.9% in premarket trading after the Bitcoin mining and data center company reported second-quarter revenue that fell short of the average analyst estimate. The company cited longer-than-expected timelines for securing data center customers as a key factor, according to Bloomberg.
