Coinbase Acquires Prediction Markets Company to Drive Market Innovation

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.COINBASE TO ACQUIRE THE CLEARING COMPANY:Coinbaseannounced Monday that it hasa prediction markets company "innovating at the frontier of regulated, onchain markets." The company said, "The team brings deep expertise that will help power and scale prediction markets on Coinbase, accelerating our roadmap toward being the Everything Exchange." This transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in January, Coinbase added. Coinbase did not disclose financial terms of the deal.Additionally, Clear Street announced the firm'sKey themes next year will be tokenization, artificial intelligence fraud, automatic shopping, a recovery in initial public offerings, and lower interest rates, the analyst said. Clear Street names Nasdaq, Coinbase and S&P Globalas its top FinTech ideas for 2026.CIPHER MINING ACQUIRES OHIO SITE:Cipher Miningannounced Tuesday the, called "Ulysses." The transaction includes 195 acres of land and secured capacity from AEP Ohio. All utility agreements required to support the development of the site are in place, and the site is on track to energize in 4Q27. When energized, the site will give Cipher direct access to PJM, the nation's largest wholesale electricity market. With the addition of this site, Cipher's development pipeline now totals 3.4 GW across 8 sites."Hyperscalers are driving unprecedented demand for large-scale sites," said Tyler Page, CEO. "Leveraging our proven sourcing capabilities, Cipher is continuing to seize the opportunity to shape the future of high-performance computing infrastructure. This new site, in a new power market, gives us additional capacity to continue expanding our HPC hosting business while broadening our geographical footprint."HUT 8 PRICE TARGET RAISE:Benchmark raised the firm's price target on Hut 8toon the shares. The announcement of a comprehensive AI/HPC infrastructure transaction at the River Bend campus "represented a defining moment in the company's strategic evolution from a crypto-native power owner to a scaled, institutional-grade digital infrastructure platform," the analyst said. The firm sees "superior deal economics" relative to peer deals, the analyst added.Meanwhile, Roth Capital kepton Hut 8. The company has signed one of the more favorable high-performance-compute lease agreements announced, with 245MW capacity to Fluidstack valued at $7B and 97% operating margins, including a full backstop from Google, the analyst said. Its improved economics and backstop have positioned Hut 8 to secure more favorable project financing terms, the firm said. Combined with construction partners and Fluidstack's optionality on behalf of Anthropic, this enables Hut 8 to scale its power portfolio to more than 2GW, the firm added.GEMINI PRICE TARGETS LOWERED:Morgan Stanley lowered the firm's price target on Geminitoon the shares. Healthy transactional activity across brokers and exchanges in Q4 drives modest positive revision risk, noted the analyst in a preview. The analyst is raising Q4 EPS estimates by 5% on average, leaving the firm in-line with consensus, the analyst noted.Meanwhile, Mizuho lowered the firm's price target on Gemini toon the shares. To reflect softening crypto trading activity in Q4, the firm reduced Gemini's volume assumptions for the quarter. After a "strong" Q3, the markets have been volatile Q4, driven by a risk-off shift that dampened spot trading volumes broadly, the analyst said. Despite near-term headwinds, Mizuho remains constructive on Gemini's outlook, citing positive developments on the product, regulatory, and competitive fronts.JPMORGAN WEIGHS CRYPTO TRADING FOR INSTITUTIONS:JPMorganis evaluating offeringas large banks expand their involvement in the asset class, Bloomberg's Anna Irrera reported Monday, citing a person familiar with the matter. The bank is assessing products its markets division could offer, potentially including spot and derivatives trading, in response to rising client demand and a changing U.S. regulatory environment, according to the report. The move would mark a significant shift for the bank, whose CEO Jamie Dimon previously dismissed bitcoin but has recently shifted his rocky view to a more pragmatic one.OTHER CRYPTO NEWS:Strategyreportsmade December 15 to December 21Bitmine ImmersionannouncesChardan initiates coverage of,SRx HealthannounceFold Holdingsto be includedJiuzisignswith EXSAT.NETWORKShift4 PaymentslaunchesCangoinitiated withTrust Stamp, Blue Goldenter LOIStablecoin startups reportedlyCRYPTO STOCK PLAYS:Publicly traded companies in the space include Bit Digital, Coinbase, Core Scientific, Greenidge Generation, Mara Holdings, Strategy, Riot Platformsand TeraWulf.PRICE ACTION:As of time of writing, bitcoin rose roughly 1% this week at $88,733 in U.S. dollars, according to CoinDesk.