Market Update & Industry News - Week ending 7 June 2024

🔷 US financial company, Robinhood Markets, announced an agreement to acquire digital asset exchange, Bitstamp, for approximately $200m. In an alleged effort to expand outside of the US, Bitstamp holds 50 active licenses and registrations globally which will be acquired by Robinhood Markets reportedly in the first half of 2025.

Appold view: A positive strategic move from Robinhood. Note that this transaction follows Robinhood’s attempt to acquire the UK digital asset exchange Ziglu, which was announced in April 2022 for approximately $170m. The media later reported that this was apparently revised to approximately $72m and then abandoned in March 2023. With such a long timeframe to completion, fluctuating market conditions could adversely affect Bitstamp's valuation in either direction.

🔷 The Founder and former CEO of, Binance, began his 4-month federal prison sentence in California. With a net worth of $36.5b, Changpeng Zhao (CZ) is alleged to be the richest person to ever go to prison in the US. CZ was sentenced after pleading guilty to the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) in November and was fined $50m and forced to step down as the CEO of Binance.

Appold view: Although CZ is guilty of committing a crime, Binance is not, the company fine relates to regulatory violations. This will certainly impact major institutions dealing with the exchange and we’ll continue to monitor the impact on exchange market share throughout the year.

🔷 German banking giant, Deutsche Bank, announced a partnership with digital asset exchange Bitpanda to access German international bank account numbers (IBANs), enabling them to convert digital assets to fiat currency, and vice versa. Deutsche Bank currently has a similar partnership with Hong Kong-based Hashkey, making Bitpanda the first European-based exchange to be selected.

Appold view: First they covered Asia with the Hashkey services provision and now they are servicing Europe with Bitpanda. Not groundbreaking news but adventurous for Deutsche Bank as it increases its exposure and comfort in this sector. The race is now on as to whether they broaden their service provision to the other exchanges, in order to grab market share, or their banking competitors accelerate their efforts.

🔷 Bakkt, the digital asset technology company founded by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), was reported by Bloomberg to be exploring a range of options including a sale and break up. Launched to a big fanfare in 2018 for crypto services and listed via a SPAC in 2021, the company was also facing a potential delisting from the NYSE.

Appold view: These significant financial challenges, along with the risk of delisting, are concerning based on the potential the company had when it launched. Unfortunately, the company does not appear to have carved enough market share from its competitors, including Coinbase and Gemini.

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