Public Keys is a weekly roundup from Decrypt that tracks the important thing publicly traded crypto firms. This week: GameStop makes an enormous splash with its Bitcoin announcement, then fumbles with a debt providing; BTC miners are in for a world of damage as charges shrink; and Robinhood will get a New Jersey slap on the wrist for its prediction market debut.
GameStop presses play on Bitcoin
There was a number of pleasure for GameStop’s This fall earnings report as a result of it was closely hinted—after which confirmed—that the corporate was going to start out shopping for Bitcoin.
(There’s a quickly rising record of publicly traded firms that purchase Bitcoin.)
The online game retailer, which trades on the New York Inventory Trade beneath the GME ticker, reported $4.8 billion in money and money equivalents as of February 1—up from $921 million the identical time final yr.
However as a substitute of utilizing a portion of that money to purchase Bitcoin, it’s elevating $1.3 billion in a convertible be aware providing. GME traders are usually not happy, however merchants are discovering a approach to revenue on the information: Quick quantity yesterday was the very best it’s been since meme inventory influencer Roaring Kitty made his return final summer time.
In the meantime, GME has erased its BTC bump and sank close to a six-month low. By Friday afternoon, the worth of GME was hovering round $22 and had misplaced 12.9% over the previous 5 days.
Buyers have famous on X, previously Twitter, that greater than 71% of GME quantity is being traded off exchanges in darkish swimming pools. That is how institutional traders, like hedge funds, mutual funds, and pensions perform massive transactions with out having to right away disclose them publicly.
The unbelievable, shrinking Bitcoin charges
Troubling information for miners: Bitcoin transaction charges have been shrinking.
BlocksBridge Consulting famous in its e-newsletter this week that transaction charges now make up only one.25% of whole block rewards. That’s the bottom it’s been since April 2022.
“With no important uptick in Bitcoin’s market worth or a revival in transaction charges, these miners might quickly face an unmanageable scenario: they could not be capable to compete,” BlockBridge analysts wrote.
On the time of writing, Bitcoin and the remainder of the crypto market, are within the throes of a rout. The worldwide crypto market cap has sunk by 5.5% up to now 24 hours and the worth of Bitcoin is down 3.7% to $83,804.62, in keeping with CoinGecko knowledge.
In the meantime, Bitcoin miners informed Decrypt at a convention earlier this week that pivoting knowledge warehouses to serve high-performance computing and AI purchasers has include its personal set of challenges.
For starters, Bitcoin miners can—and sometimes do—flip their rigs off to save cash. However that doesn’t fly whenever you’re dealing with workloads for AI startups.
“We’re interruptible [as Bitcoin miners], whereas a conventional knowledge middle wants [to be] on 100% of the time,” Shanon Squires from Compass Mining informed Decrypt, including that this ups prices massive time.
Paging CoreWeave quote
Talking of Bitcoin miners pivoting to AI, Nvidia-backed AI hyperscaler CoreWeave started buying and selling on the Nasdaq beneath the CRWV ticker—or so we have been informed.
(Bear in mind: CoreWeave, started as a crypto miner targeted on Ethereum in 2019, earlier than regularly pivoting to AI as Ethereum switched to a proof-of-stake consensus in 2022 and rendered Ethereum miners out of date.)
The corporate’s CEO rang the opening bell on Friday to mark the IPO, which priced shares at $40 and sought to lift $1.5 billion. For a time, it was anticipated that CRWV would increase as much as $2.7 billion with worth estimates as excessive as $55 per share.
However for the higher a part of the day, it was not possible to discover a inventory quote for CRWV. And when it did present up, round 1:30 p.m. Japanese Time, the share worth had fallen 5.5% to $37.81. However it recovered barely and appeared to be ending its first day of buying and selling having gained 2.4%.
Nicely…we’re ready. $CRWV pic.twitter.com/G4qqg4oQHL
— No one Particular (@JG_Nuke) March 28, 2025
An unnamed individual aware of the matter informed Bloomberg that three unnamed traders purchased half of the $1.5 billion providing. And Nvidia was rumored to snap up $250 million value of the providing. In different phrases, a handful of rich folks juiced the IPO to make it seem extra profitable than it in any other case would have been, in keeping with Bloomberg’s reporting.
One of many points analysts have flagged with CRWV is the background of its founders. As Matt Turck, accomplice at enterprise capital agency FirstMark, put it on X, they arrive from a monetary, quite than technological, background.
However even with two finance co-founders, the financials haven’t seemed nice.
“CoreWeave stays deeply unprofitable”, Turck wrote in a weblog submit.“ It incurred a internet lack of $31M in 2022, which widened to $593.7 million in 2023 and $863.4 million in 2024 (-45% margin). In different phrases, bills grew nearly as quick as income – the 2024 internet loss was about 45% of income (an enchancment from 2023, when the online loss exceeded 2× annual income).”
Trip for Robinhood?
First, the excellent news: Robinhood put some additional shine on its Gold premium membership earlier this week.
The crypto and inventory buying and selling platform, which trades on the Nasdaq beneath the HOOD ticker, is now going to incorporate entry to Robinhood Methods, which goals to ship “tailor, expert-managed portfolios,” tickets to unique occasions such because the Oscars, personal jet journey, and same-day supply of money direct to a buyer’s doorstep.
This led Bernstein analysts to set a $105 worth goal for HOOD—greater than double the corporate’s present share worth of $41.65.
However, in keeping with The Closing Line, state regulators have an issue with one other current replace from the corporate: Its sports activities prediction markets.
The New Jersey Division of Gaming and Leisure despatched a letter to the businesses, alleging the markets are “unauthorised sports activities wagering companies” and shouldn’t be accessible to state residents.
Midnight tonight is the deadline for Kalshi and Robinhood to acknowledge receipt of the letter and shut off entry for New Jersey residents. At roughly 3 p.m. Japanese Time, this New Jersey resident might nonetheless see the markets in her Robinhood app.
Different keys
Buying and selling platform eToro, which paired its crypto choices again to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Bitcoin Money as a part of an SEC settlement, is now making a run for an preliminary public providing. However it stays to be seen whether or not eToro will convey again crypto to lure in new customers.
However having been on- and off-again with most crypto belongings doesn’t appear to have damage its efficiency.
In its SEC submitting, the corporate reported that crypto accounted for 38% of the corporate’s commissions, up from 17% the yr earlier than. And whole commissions grew to $931 million, up 46% from $639 million in 2023.
May this be the bull that leads present tech IPO season?
