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. SURGE IN PRICE, MAINSTREAM ATTENTION: Bitcoin’s price in U.S. dollars, which had only topped $10,000 for the first time last week, rocketed past $19,000 on one of its major exchanges on Thursday. The wild trading on Wednesday and Thursday of this week brought with it an associated spike in mainstream attention from CNBC and others media outlets. 2. CBOE FUTURES LAUNCH SUNDAY: As previously announced on December 4, CBOE’s (CBOE) Futures Exchange plans to offer trading in bitcoin futures beginning at 5:00 p.m. CT on Sunday, December 10, 2017, at the start of Global Trading Hours. Monday, December 11, will be the first full day of trading, and trading will be free through December. CBOE’s bitcoin futures will trade on CFE under the ticker symbol ‘XBT.’ XBTSM futures are cash-settled contracts based on Gemini’s auction price for bitcoin, denominated in U.S. dollars. 3. BANKS HESITANT: Bank of America (BAC) and Citigroup (C) won’t offer clients access to the first bitcoin futures market when it goes live on Sunday, while Goldman Sachs (GS) will only offer access to certain customers at the start, people familiar with the matters told The Wall Street Journal. Morgan Stanley (MS) is still evaluating its approach to bitcoin futures, the report added. A CBOE spokeswoman said its planned launch of the futures this Sunday will go ahead as planned, but declined to release a list of banks prepared to handle trading in the bitcoin futures, The Journal noted. 4. DISCOUNT BROKERS MAY GET INVOLVED: Morgan Stanley analyst Michael Cyprys told investors in a note published this week that he expects discount brokers including E-Trade (ETFC), TD Ameritrade (AMTD) and Ally Financial (ALLY) to offer bitcoin futures trading within the next few months. Among them, he views TD Ameritrade as most likely to embrace bitcoin and lead the way and Charles Schwab (SCHW) as likely to be a latecomer. Cyprys added that he was surprised, given its status as a “challenger brand,” that E-Trade has said it will take “a wait-and-see” approach. 5. TARGET RAISED TO KEEP PACE: On Thursday, Standpoint Research analyst Ronnie Moas raised his 2018 price target for bitcoin to $28,000 from $20,000. Just over a week ago the analyst raised his 2018 target to $20,000 from $14,000. Moas pointed out that his longer term public target remains $50,000. Noting that the supply of bitcoin is capped, Moas contends, “We are a couple of years away from being in a situation where hundreds of millions of people around the world are trying to get their hands on a few million bitcoin.” 6. CITRON GOES BACK TO SHORTING BITCOIN TRUST: Citron Research, the short-selling focused firm run by Andrew Left, tweeted on Thursday: “Bitfinex, the largest Bitcoin exch has threatened legal action against critics. Could be the Lehman moment of Bitcoin….Citron has agreed to cover legal fees for bloggers expressing opinions. We have been in contact. Open dialogue in markets is important…That being said the $GBTC premium has evaporated and now we cautiously entered a new short position at $1800 on GBTC.” 7. BITCOIN 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), which has invested in blockchain technology and has a unit planning a launch of its own cryptocurrency, is another stock that has been touted as a way to play the crypto theme. PRICE ACTION: As of time of writing, bitcoin rose about 42% this week to $15,344 in U.S. dollars according to CoinDesk. Meanwhile, AMD shares fell 7% this week to $9.95 and Nvidia dropped 3% on a weekly basis to $191.54. Bitcoin Investment Trust rose about 3% this week to $1,675. 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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