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.

BLOCK, CORE SCIENTIFIC ENTER SUPPLY DEAL: Block (SQ) and Core Scientific (CORZ) announced Wednesday an agreement to supply Core Scientific with Block's new 3 nanometer mining ASICs, built by the Proto team, representing approximately 15 EH/s of hashrate. The agreement provides the option for additional, significant volume. In support of its mission to democratize bitcoin mining, the Proto team at Block is developing a modular mining platform around its ASIC mining chip to deliver an integrated bitcoin mining solution that offers several advantages over existing mining system designs, resulting in improved efficiency, reliability, and uptime in large-scale mining operations. It's designed to simplify infrastructure demands and optimize the use of space and operational resources within data centers such as those operated by Core Scientific and also prioritizes sustainability and compatibility by integrating with existing infrastructure and promoting the reuse of non-ASIC elements of the hardware stack. [read more]

Following the report, Macquarie noted that this size order represents one of the larger bitcoin mining ASIC deals announced to date in terms of aggregate compute capacity and called the deal "a key milestone for Proto's mining ASIC program." While no financial terms were disclosed, the firm contends this development is "further evidence" of Block's Proto team emerging as a "leader in the crypto hardware ecosystem," in addition to its existing software platforms. The firm has an Outperform rating and $100 price target on Block shares. [read more]

Meanwhile on Tuesday, Bernstein initiated coverage of Core Scientific with an Outperform rating and $17 price target. Bitcoin miners are emerging as attractive partners to build out artificial intelligence data centers with "ready power interconnect" and data center operating capabilities, the analyst said. The firm added Core Scientific leads the AI data center co-hosting model, securing a 12 year $4.7B contract with Coreweave. [read more]

Additionally on Wednesday, H.C. Wainwright raised the firm's price target on Core Scientific to $15 from $11 and kept a Buy rating on the shares. The firm reduced the company's expected debt expense this year but added to the share count in reflecting the debt conversion. [read more]

CULPER REPORTS SHORT POSITION IN IRIS ENERGY: Culper Research announced a short position in Iris Energy (IREN) on Thursday, saying the company is a bitcoin miner "that now promotes itself as a high-performance computing data center play." The firm's analysis showed Iris' flagship Childress buildout "lacks numerous features that are critical" to high performance computing applications. The company's co-CEO Daniel Roberts and his co-CEO and brother Will have started selling their own shares for the first time since the company's initial public offering, the firm added. "Since 2020, IREN has burned $716M in cash, and funded this charade by diluting investors to seemingly no end - share count has exploded 12x in the past 4 years. We believe IREN is a painfully transparent stock promotion that will unravel as investors realize the company's HPC claims are nonsense and IREN remains a cash guzzling machine," Culper added. [read more]

Additionally on Tuesday, Bernstein initiated coverage of Iris Energy with an Outperform rating and $26 price target. The firm said Iris Energy has one of the strongest power pipelines at greater than 2GW and strong capabilities in data center operations. It expects 15% of the company's power capacity to pivot to AI data centers, mostly on the co-hosting model. [read more]

BITFARMS APPOINTS NEW CEO: On Monday, Bitfarms (BITF) announced that the Board of Directors has appointed Ben Gagnon as CEO, effective immediately. He was previously Chief Mining Officer. "Ben is a seasoned leader with significant experience in Bitcoin mining, and we are thrilled to appoint someone of his caliber as the Company's next CEO," said Nicolas Bonta, Chairman. "Over the last five years, Ben has been a vital member of the Bitfarms leadership team and has been instrumental in positioning the company to drive organic growth and capture a greater share of the global demand for bitcoin. [read more]

Additionally on Monday, Riot Platforms (RIOT) launched www.ABetterBitfarms.com in connection with its requisition of a special meeting of shareholders of Bitfarms to reconstitute the Bitfarms Board of Directors. Riot has nominated three director nominees, John Delaney, Amy Freedman and Ralph Goehring, for election to the Bitfarms Board at the Special Meeting. Bitfarms' shareholders, employees and other stakeholders are encouraged to visit www.ABetterBitfarms.com to sign up for updates, anonymously share their views and learn about Riot's efforts to elect directors. [read more]

On Friday, Bitfarms announced that its Board of Directors has called a hybrid special meeting of shareholders to be held on October 29, 2024. The meeting has been called in response to a requisition for a shareholders' meeting submitted by Riot Platforms. The company said, "Through the requisition, Riot is attempting to disrupt the strategic alternatives review process which the company commenced to thoroughly evaluate all opportunities to maximize shareholder value and opportunistically acquire the company." Bitfarms shareholders of record as of September 26, 2024 are entitled to vote at the meeting. Bitfarms added, "The company remains committed to constructive engagement with all shareholders and remains hopeful that Riot will seek to constructively engage with the company so that Bitfarms need not expend its limited cash resources to protect the interests of its stakeholders against the actions of Riot." [read more]

HUT 8 SIGNS AGREEMENT FOR WEST TEXAS SITE: Hut 8 Corp. (HUT) announced Tuesday it has entered into a power purchase agreement and other definitive agreements for a site in West Texas with exclusive access to 205 megawatts of immediately available power capacity and land. This marks the first transaction to convert from Hut 8's previously announced development pipeline of 1,100 megawatts of energy capacity under exclusivity. The PPA and site, which is adjacent to a wind farm and connected to the ERCOT grid, give Hut 8 access to some of the lowest locational wholesale power pricing in North America. The site has an existing, operational substation, and engineering, procurement, and construction efforts for a new data center are underway. The site is well-positioned to support a variety of high-density compute applications, including bitcoin mining and AI. Hut 8 is finalizing a commercialization plan for the site with the aim of maximizing its value.  Upon closing, subject to the satisfaction of customary conditions, this transaction is expected to expand Hut 8's energy infrastructure platform to approximately 1.3 gigawatts of capacity owned and managed across self-mining, hosting, managed services, high performance computing, and power generation. [read more]

COINBASE PRICE TARGET LOWERED: Barclays lowered the firm's price target on Coinbase (COIN) on Wednesday to $196 from $204 and kept an Underweight rating on the shares as part of a Q2 earnings preview. Crypto market activity spiked in March but has reversed since, and Street exchange volume and revenue estimates look too high, the analyst said. [read more]

The company also announced in a Thursday blog post the introduction of the new Coinbase Wallet web app. Coinbase said, "This innovative platform serves as your one-stop destination to explore, manage, and engage with people, communities, and businesses onchain. The Coinbase Wallet web app is a new website accessible on both your desktop and mobile devices. Discover the latest NFT mints, seamlessly view and trade across all your wallets, and access all your crypto assets in a single, full-screen, streamlined interface. This launch complements our recent introduction of smart wallet, designed to simplify your entry into the onchain world, allowing new users to start without the need to install any extension or mobile app." [read more]

CRYPTO STOCK PLAYS: Publicly traded companies in the space include Bit Digital (BTBT), Coinbase, Core Scientific, Greenidge Generation (GREE), Marathon Digital (MARA), MicroStrategy (MSTR), Riot Platforms, Stronghold Digital Mining (SDIG) and TeraWulf (WULF).

PRICE ACTION: As of time of writing, bitcoin rose about 2% this week to $57,571 in U.S. dollars, according to CoinDesk.

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