Bitcoin’s Run
Bitcoin remains white hot – the cryptocurrency is up more than $3,000 over the last week or so, surpassing $11,300 earlier this week. There are obviously many supporters of the leading cryptocurrency – some believe its scarcity value supports the rapid rise in the bitcoin price. 32% of young people prefer bitcoin to stocks and 42% of millennial males said they will purchase bitcoin within the next five years. Some established institutions are pursuing initiatives that give the cryptocurrency legitimacy – the Chicago Mercantile Exchange plans to launch bitcoin futures by the end of 2017 due to client demand, the Wall Street Journal reported that both the NASDAQ and Cantor Fitzgerald are looking to launch Bitcoin derivatives, Amazon registered several domain names for bitcoin, and JPMorgan is helping investors buy Bitcoin futures. Additionally, the US government has signaled a willingness to regulate cryptocurrencies.
But many are still skeptical and believe there’s a bubble. Some skeptics cite the fact that the rapid rise in prices is completely sentiment-driven, and that Bitcoin doesn’t provide a steady income stream like a bond or dividend might. These contrasting views are contributing to its volatility. Regardless of which side investors fall on, it does seem that Bitcoin is still in its early stages – we would expect more exchanges to look to launch initiatives that will be supportive of bitcoin, and as the cryptocurrency space grows, regulations will likely look to ensure they are safe for investors.
We have an investor that is actively investing up to $50 million in bitcoin related, cryptoanalysis, hot wallet, cold wallet and blockchain companies. We also recently closed such a transaction and are very focused in this space.
Castle Placement is an investment bank (founded in 2009) that raises raise equity and debt capital for companies in a variety of industries from our institutional investor network (>27,000 investors – PE/VC firms, hedge funds, family offices, asset managers, lenders, etc.).