Crypto
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Strategy returns to its bitcoin buying, GameStop may be next

It was a somewhat uneventful week for bitcoin. The asset took a quick tumble after inflation data was released, but quickly recovered. As for corporate bitcoin reserve stashers, they continued their stockpiling mission, but Michael Saylor’s Strategy is still leading the pack by far.

After a short break and for the first time since its rebranding, Strategy resumed its bitcoin accumulation. This week, it added 7,633 to its stash, bringing its total to 478,740. Saylor noted in an X post that this represents “~76% of all bitcoin held by public companies.”

Meanwhile, after a mere photo of Saylor with GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen sent the gaming company’s stock soaring on hopes that it would adopt Saylor’s strategy, this week holders of the meme stock got more fuel for the bitcoin fire when a report came out saying that it is, indeed, considering investing in bitcoin

Other companies also added more bitcoin to their piles. Energy management platform KULR Technology increased its bitcoin purchases “by an additional $10 million to reach a total of approximately $60 million in bitcoin acquisitions.” It now holds 610 bitcoin. 

Japanese publicly listed Metaplanet, “Asia’s leading bitcoin treasury company,” announced it raised $226 million in “unsecured, ordinary bonds” to buy more bitcoin. The goal is to hold 10,000 bitcoin by the end of 2025 and 21,000 bitcoin by the end of 2026.

Finally, Gumi, a Japanese publicly traded gaming company, announced it would buy $6.5 million worth of bitcoin.

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Altcoin trading activity has lost its mojo

Non-bitcoin cryptocurrencies have seen their trading volume plummet in the past five months. The combined trading volume of ethereum, XRP, solana, dogecoin, SUI, and chainlink has decreased by 60% since crypto’s October 10 liquidation event, according to Thomas Probst, a research analyst at crypto markets data provider Kaiko.

Main Altcoins Trading Volume in USD
The trading volume of ETH, SOL, XRP, DOGE, SUI, and LINK.

For all altcoins, spot trading volume on Binance has declined between 80% and 85% to $7.7 billion, while altcoin volume on other exchanges has dropped to $18.8 billion, down from a range of $63 billion to $91 billion in October, a Friday report from Decrypt found, citing data from CryptoQuant.

“This trend may be explained by a contraction in market liquidity over the same period,” Probst told Sherwood News. “This phenomenon is also reflected in the average 1% market depth, which stood at approximately $2.6 million before the October 10 crash and is now closer to $1.7 million when aggregated across ETH, XRP, SOL, SUI, and LINK.” 

Market depth is used by investors and traders to gauge the scale of liquidity in a market. 1% market depth refers to the amount of liquidity needed to move the market by 1%. 

CoinGlass’s Altcoin Season Index, a measure to assess the performance of non-bitcoin cryptocurrencies, has been sitting above 50 this week, suggesting that the current market is neither in a bitcoin dominant phase nor an altcoin season.

Witch

“Triple witching” day may put further pressure on bitcoin’s price

This is not “a favorable environment for risk assets.”

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Payward, parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, puts plans for IPO on hold

Payward, crypto exchange Kraken’s parent company, has paused its plans for an initial public offering until market conditions improve, according to a report from CoinDesk that cited two people with knowledge of the matter. 

Since the firm announced in November its preparation for an IPO of its common stock, the total market capitalization of the crypto industry has shed around $652.2 billion, from $3.2 trillion to $2.5 trillion as of Wednesday, data from CoinGecko shows. 

The news comes two weeks after Kraken received approval for a master account from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, allowing the crypto exchange to connect to the Fed’s payment infrastructure used by traditional banks and credit unions. 

Last year, Kraken raised $800 million at a $20 billion valuation from institutional investors such as Jane Street and Citadel Securities.

The news comes two weeks after Kraken received approval for a master account from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, allowing the crypto exchange to connect to the Fed’s payment infrastructure used by traditional banks and credit unions. 

Last year, Kraken raised $800 million at a $20 billion valuation from institutional investors such as Jane Street and Citadel Securities.

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