Crypto Currents: PNC, Coinbase partner for digital asset solutions

As bitcoin, ethereum and other cryptocurrencies see major legal, institutional, and technological developments, the financial landscape continues to adapt. Stay up on the crypto news that matters with the “Crypto Currents” weekly from The Fly. Also, join us for your essential daily recap, every day at 2 PM ET on FlyCast radio.

PNC, COINBASE PARTNER FOR DIGITAL ASSET SOLUTIONS: PNC Bank (PNC) announced Tuesday a strategic partnership with Coinbase (COIN) aimed at expanding access to trusted, secure, and innovative digital asset solutions to PNC’s banking clients and institutional investors. PNC will also provide select banking services to Coinbase, reflecting both companies’ commitment to a more resilient digital financial system. PNC and Coinbase will work together to develop an initial offering that will allow clients to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies.

“Partnering with Coinbase accelerates our ability to bring innovative, crypto financial solutions to our clients,” said William Demchak, PNC CEO. “We will also provide PNC’s best-in-class banking services to Coinbase. This collaboration enables us to meet growing demand for secure and streamlined access to digital assets on PNC’s trusted platform.”

On Wednesday, Erste Group initiated coverage of Coinbase with a Buy rating. The company is benefiting from the increasing adoption of cryptocurrencies and its sales will grow faster than the sector in 2025, the analyst said.

Coinbase announced Monday that U.S. customers can trade CFTC-regulated perpetual futures via Coinbase Financial Markets. Two perpetual futures contracts are currently available to trade: nano Bitcoin Perpetual Futures, BTC-PERP; and nano Ether Perpetual Futures, ETH-PERP.

Additionally on Monday, Piper Sandler raised the firm’s price target on Coinbase to $350 from $190 and kept a Neutral rating on the shares ahead of quarterly results. Heading into Q2, the firm expects the narrative surrounding bitcoin miners to remain largely focused on power demand from AI hyperscalers and potential future deals with these companies. While there remains lots of positive momentum in the digital asset space, with legislative progress and growing institutional adoption, Piper reminds investors of bitcoin’s historically predictable cyclicality around “halving events” which “tells us we may be approaching the late innings of this bull run.”

STRATEGY BUYS MORE BITCOIN: In a Monday regulatory filing, Strategy (MSTR) disclosed that the company acquired 6,220 bitcoin for an aggregate purchase price of $739.8M during the period of July 14 to July 20. The company’s aggregate bitcoin holdings amount to 607,770 as of July 20, the filing stated.

Additionally, in a Wednesday regulatory filing, the company announced a purported class action lawsuit was filed in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware against Strategy and the board of directors alleging violations of the Delaware General Corporation Law, and asserting a claim against the board for breach of fiduciary duty in connection with the purported DGCL violation.

The company said, “The plaintiff, David Dodge, purports to assert claims on behalf of himself and similarly situated holders of our common stock alleging that pursuant to Section 242 of the DGCL, the holders of our common stock were entitled to vote on the filing of a Certificate of Amendment to the Certificate of Designations for our 8.00% Series A Perpetual Strike Preferred Stock, $0.001 par value per share, which modified certain terms of the STRK Stock so that, together with other conforming changes, the liquidation preference per share of the STRK Stock generally approximates its trading price with a floor of $100…The complaint seeks, among other things, an order finding, determining and declaring that we violated Section 242; finding, determining and declaring that the Board has breached its fiduciary duties; deeming the Amendment ineffective and requiring that we file a certificate of correction with the Delaware Secretary of State invalidating the Amendment; awarding unspecified damages to the Plaintiff and class, including interest, attorneys’ fees, costs; and granting other relief.”

ARK INVEST ACQUIRES $182M OF BITMINE SHARES: BitMine Immersion (BMNR) announced Tuesday that ARK Invest acquired 4,773,444 shares of BitMine common stock totaling $182M. The company expects to invest 100% of the net proceeds to acquire ETH. This transaction was accomplished via a block trade made in connection with the company’s previously announced ATM program.

“We are delighted that Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest is taking a substantial stake in BitMine as she sees the exponential opportunity ahead as we target reaching 5% of ETH,” said Thomas Lee, Chairman. “Cathie is a pioneer of exponential investing, having made early and profitable investments in Tesla, Bitcoin, and AI.”

BitMine also announced Thursday holdings of ETH exceeding $2B. The company closed on its initial private placement of $250M on July 8 in furtherance of its asset light treasury strategy. As of July 23, the company’s ETH holdings total 566,776 at $3,643.752 per ETH.

“At BitMine, we surpassed $2B in ETH holdings, just sixteen days after closing on the initial $250M private placement,” said Lee. “We are well on our way to achieving our goal of acquiring and staking 5% of the overall ETH supply.”

K WAVE MEDIA PARTNERS WITH GALAXY DIGITAL: K Wave Media (KWM) announced Monday a strategic partnership with Galaxy Digital (GLXY). Galaxy will serve as an asset manager and strategic advisor to KWM, and will make an investment in KWM, as the company executes its bitcoin treasury strategy and expands access to institutional capital.

“Galaxy shares our belief that bitcoin is not just a reserve asset, but a generational monetary shift,” said Ted Kim, CEO. “Their support reflects growing global confidence in our strategy and in Korea’s role as a key market for digital transformation.”

Piper Sandler raised the firm’s price target on Galaxy Digital on Monday(CRWV) at $12/share, and the incremental 1.7 GW of power pending ERCOT approval at Helios at $16/share. This results in a hypothetical all-in valuation of $43/share at the high end of the firm’s potential valuation range.

On Wednesday, Jefferies initiated coverage of Galaxy Digital with a Buy rating and $35 price target. The firm believes the company is “uniquely positioned” for upside from a more favorable regulatory backdrop for crypto and the growing demand for artificial intelligence data centers. The passage of the Genius Act brings a favorable market structure for Galaxy’s Digital Assets business, the analyst said.

Meanwhile on Friday, Rosenblatt raised the firm’s price target on Galaxy Digital to $36 from $25 and kept a Buy rating on the shares. The firm sees the company topping consensus estimates “for years to come” amid political tailwinds and rising institutional interest in crypto. The firm sees no reason to stop being bullish on the shares despite the recent rally. The analyst upped 2027 estimates.

THE ETHER MACHINE TO GO PUBLIC: The Ether Machine announced Monday (DYNX). Upon the closing of the business combination, the combined entity will trade on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol “ETHM”. The Ether Machine is building the largest public vehicle for institutional-grade exposure to Ethereum, offering secure, transparent, and compliant access to ETH-denominated yield. As a strategic Ether generation company, it aims to deliver long-term, risk-adjusted returns through staking, restaking, and decentralized finance strategies. This transaction marks the largest all-common-stock financing committed at announcement since 2021, with a contribution of approximately $645M by Co-Founder and Chairman Andrew Keys at inception and excess of $800M of upsized, fully-committed financing at $10.00 per share from institutional and strategic investors including 1Roundtable Partners / 10T Holdings, Archetype, Blockchain.com, cyberFund, Electric Capital, Kraken and Pantera Capital. The transaction is expected to deliver over $1.6N of gross proceeds, including over $1.5N of fully committed financing and up to $170M of cash held in Dynamix’s trust account. The company is expected to launch with over 400,000 ETH on its balance sheet, making it the largest public Ether generation company. The boards of directors of both The Ether Machine and DYNX have unanimously approved the proposed business combination, which is expected to close by the fourth quarter of 2025.

“The Ether Machine provides secure, liquid access to Ether – the digital oil that is powering the next era of the digital economy,” said Keys. “We have assembled a team of ‘Ethereum Avengers’ to actively manage and unlock yields to levels we believe will be market-leading for investors.”

OTHER CRYPTO NEWS:

• Hut 8 (HUT) secures commercial license in Dubai International Financial Centre
• (CRCL) to Sell after stablecoin bill passes
• Bitfarms (BITF) initiated with a Buy at JonesResearch
• Core Scientific (CORZ) initiated with a Buy at Arete
• Coincheck (CNCK) initiated with a Sector Weight at KeyBanc

CRYPTO STOCK PLAYS: Publicly traded companies in the space include Bit Digital (BTBT), Coinbase, Core Scientific, Greenidge Generation (GREE), Mara Holdings (MARA), Strategy, Riot Platforms (RIOT) and TeraWulf (WULF).

PRICE ACTION: As of time of writing, bitcoin dropped roughly 2% this week to $116,161 in U.S. dollars, according to CoinDesk.