Crypto
A bronze statue of “Satoshi Nakamoto”
A bronze statue of Satoshi Nakamoto (Attila Kisbenedek/Getty Images)

Bitcoin drops ahead of the long weekend

The risk-off mood hits cryptos, too.

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy

The crypto market overall is starting the long weekend down, with bitcoin hovering around $108,000 levels not seen since early July. The asset is down 3.5% in the past 24 hours. solana, meanwhile, was also down 2% in the past 24 hours.

Yet, there was some good news for the crypto space, including bitcoin miner Iris Energy, which jumped 16% this morning. The company’s full-year earnings report showed records for revenue and net income, and shares also benefited from the announcement that management had secured “preferred partner status” from Nvidia and expanded “its total GPU fleet to 10.9k NVIDIA GPUs.”

Total revenue increased to $501 million, a 168% increase versus FY24, while net income stood at $86.9 million, compared to a net loss of $28.9 million for FY24.

In addition, it reported EBITDA of $241.4 million, including $1 billion in annualized revenue from bitcoin mining “under current mining economics.”

There was also a slew of solana news, notably in the token’s corporate treasury space, which is gaining momentum.

Defi Development Corp. announced the launch of DFDV UK, “the first solana-focused public treasury vehicle in the United Kingdom.”

DeFi Development Corp. was flat in morning trading.

The new entity will be formed via the acquisition of Cykel AI, “by a group of investors, with DeFi Dev Corp holding an approximately 45% equity stake alongside local management and board members,” according to the announcement.

This represents the company’s first move as part of its “Treasury Accelerator strategy,” which is set to expand solana treasuries globally, Parker White, DFDV’s COO and CIO, told Sherwood News.

“This will give UK investors access to a best-in-class solana accumulation vehicle managed by a local team with support from DFDV. We plan to announce other companies in the coming weeks and months as we continue to scale this area of our business,” White said.

He added that this program creates long-term value for the DFDV brand and shareholders globally and directly via its infrastructure fee arrangement with these businesses, as it provides a source of revenue to DFDV that is not reliant on capital markets activity.

Defi Dev. has five other vehicles “in the pipeline at various stages of development,” the announcement said.

The company also acquired 407,247 solana yesterday, bringing its total holdings to 1.83 million solana. This makes it one of the largest solana corporate holders.

Finally, Sharps Technology, a medical device and pharmaceutical packaging company that recently entered the solana treasury fray, announced the closing of its $400 million PIPE deal.

Shares tumbled more than 11% this morning.

Alice Zhang, CIO of Sharps Technology, told Sherwood that with this transaction closed, the company is positioned to build one of the largest solana treasuries in the world, with up to $1 billion in potential proceeds if all warrants are exercized.

“We believe solana’s unmatched speed, scalability, and adoption make it the foundation for a new era of internet capital markets, and this raise gives us the resources and partnerships to execute on that vision,” Zhang said. 

The company also signed a nonbinding letter of intent with the Solana Foundation, which commits to “selling $50 million of SOL at a 15% discount to a 30-day time-weighted average price, subject to certain conditions being met.”

A slew of institutions backed the deal, including Monarq Asset Management, ParaFi, and Pantera. Cantor Fitzgerald is the lead placement agent.

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$1.2B

XRP ETFs have now crossed $1 billion in assets since the funds launched, according to SoSoValue, which shows total assets of $1.18 billion.

In September, the SEC approved generic listing standards, which paved the way for speedier listings and opened the floodgates for these products, and shortly after, Rex-Osprey launched the first spot XRP ETF available in the US.

Canary followed suit in November, launching an ETF trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker XRPC, which saw a record $58.5 million in trading volume on its first day. It’s the largest XRP ETF in the US, with $342 million in assets.

Grayscale, Bitwise, and Franklin Templeton also launched their own XRP ETFs in November. On December 11, 21Shares joined the XRP fund party.

It’s a noteworthy green shoot in the crypto space, as bitcoin and its ETFs have struggled, and XRP itself is down nearly 15% over the past month.

Jake Hanley, managing director and senior portfolio specialist at Teucrium Investment Advisors — which launched the first-ever XRP-based ETF in April, the 2x Long Daily XRP ETF — told Sherwood News that he is not surprised to see this level of interest in the XRP ETFs.

“We have long held that XRP and the Ripple ecosystem present a unique investment case among crypto assets. Crossing the $1 billion mark is yet another signal of the significant vote of confidence investors have in this increasingly important asset and ecosystem,” Hanley said.

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New bitcoin AfterDark ETF will be bitcoin at night, Treasurys by day

Tidal Trust II submitted form N-1A with the SEC to register a bitcoin ETF designed to systemically capture the cryptocurrency’s overnight return profile, a time window that delivered a significant portion of bitcoin’s upside last year.

The Nicholas Bitcoin and Treasuries AfterDark ETF provides long bitcoin exposure during US overnight hours, from the closing bell until the following morning’s market open, when the fund intends to unwind its positions, according to a document filed with the SEC on Tuesday. 

To gain that exposure, the ETF may use a number of methods, including bitcoin futures contracts, US-listed ETFs, or exchange-traded options on such bitcoin underlying funds. When the market is open and daytime trading is active, the fund’s portfolio will consist of US Treasury securities and other cash equivalents. 

In 2024, most of bitcoin’s gains occurred after-hours, senior Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas reported:

The AfterDark ETF filing comes as bitcoin crossed $94,000 on Tuesday, rising 4.5% in the last 24 hours. Even though spot bitcoin ETFs saw nearly $60.5 million in outflows on Monday, the investment vehicles have a cumulative net inflow of $57.6 billion, per SoSoValue.

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