Crypto Currents: Sam Altman’s Worldcoin rebrands to World Network

As bitcoin, ethereum and other cryptocurrencies get increasing attention from investors, Wall Street and its traditional banks continue to adjust to the shift. Catch up on this week’s top stories highlighting the intersection of these old guard and new school areas of finance with this recap compiled by The Fly.

WORLDCOIN REBRANDS TO WORLD NETWORK: In a Thursday post to its blog, cryptocurrency venture Worldcoin said Alex Blania and Sam Altman, co-inventors of Worldcoin, introduced updates to the project at the new world event in San Francisco. The post said in part, “The next generation Orb, unveiled at the new world event, offers more advanced technologies that enable World ID proof of human verifications to scale faster and more efficiently than before… World ID 3.0 is the most advanced World ID yet, featuring World ID Credentials to help bring World ID access to the millions of people who haven’t yet had a chance to verify at an Orb. World ID Credenntials allow World ID holders to optionally store information from their physical NFC-enabled passports in World App on their device, then use their World ID to prove things like age, nationality and unique passport ownership without revealing their real identity… Introducing World App 3.0 is the super app for humans, redesigned from the ground up to dramatically improve its utility and enable the World Network to scale to more people. It features Mini Apps, a new platform that enables third party apps to run right inside World App and deeply integrate anonymously with your World ID, Wallet and Contacts… World Chain is live. As of October 17th, all ~15M World ID holders and World App users have either migrated or are in the process of migrating to World Chain—the first blockchain designed to prioritize human activity and transactions… Finally, as the scale of the project grows along with the importance of World ID’s proof of human protocol, the name ‘Worldcoin’ no longer encapsulates the mission of the project—to accelerate every human. At the event, Blania and Altman introduced the World Network, or World for short. With its three key pillars, World is truly a network of real, verified humans built to enable an optimistic future in which humans will continue to be at the center of AI progress.”

BIT DIGITAL ACQUIRES ENOVUM DATA CENTERS FOR $46M: Bit Digital (BTBT) announced Monday it has acquired Enovum Data Centers for a total consideration of approximately C$62.8M, or approximately $46M. This transaction vertically integrates Bit Digital’s HPC operations with an existing, fully operational and fully leased Tier 3 datacenter in a major city, provides a strong diversity of existing and prospective colocation customers, delivers a strong pipeline of expansion site opportunities and an experienced team to lead the development processes and enables Bit Digital to offer new service offerings such as colocation and on-demand computing. Bit Digital has acquired Enovum for a total consideration of C$62.8M. The acquisition was completed on a debt-free, cash-free basis, with a normalized level of working capital acquired, funded by approximately C$56M of cash and approximately 1.62M share equivalents issued solely to key management who rolled-over a significant portion of their existing ownership in Enovum. The transaction closed on October 11.

Sam Tabar, Bit Digital’s CEO, commented: “We are thrilled to announce a transformational acquisition for Bit Digital. This transaction is the culmination of many months of due diligence and negotiation. Vertical integration on the HPC side has been a priority for Bit Digital and we believe we were able to achieve this goal at an attractive price. For a similar cost to ground-up development, we acquired an operational 4MW facility and a key time value advantage vs. greenfield development; a fully leased site already generating several million dollars of EBITDA; a diverse set of existing customers and firm book for future capacity; and a strong pipeline of future sites with an experienced team to lead the development process.”

On Wednesday, H.C. Wainwright raised the firm’s price target on Bit Digital to $7 from $6 and kept a Buy rating on the shares. The company held a call discussing its entry into the infrastructure and energy side of bitcoin mining and high-performance computing through the $46M acquisition of Enovum Data Centers, the analyst said.

GREENIDGE REPORTS PRELIMINARY Q3 REVENUE: On Monday, Greenidge Generation (GREE) reported a preliminary third quarter net loss from continuing operations of $6.6M on revenue of $12.4M. The company also reported a Q3 adjusted EBITDA loss of ($0.4M), cryptocurrency mining revenue of $3.3M and total bitcoin production of 167 bitcoin. Greenidge ended the quarter with approximately $11.3M of cash and digital assets, including 60 bitcoin and approximately $69.5M of debt. Over the second half of 2024 and throughout 2025, Greenidge anticipates continuing to gradually upgrade its miner fleet with newer generation miners, in addition to securing additional sites for future development and potentially monetizing certain assets. Through miner purchases made in 2024 to date, which include over 1,000 miners expected to be received and deployed by the end of 2024, Greenidge’s expected miner fleet efficiency will improve to approximately 26.5 J/TH from the previously reported efficiency of 28.7 J/TH as of June 30, 2024.

MICROSTRATEGY PRICE TARGET RAISE: Barclays raised the firm’s price target on MicroStrategy (MSTR) on Saturday to $225 from $173 and kept an Overweight rating on the shares. The firm said that while bitcoin prices “remain somewhat elevated,” MicroStrategy is in a comfortable position to further accelerate bitcoin yield and build up the company’s “war chest.” It increased the price target to reflect the recent price action and expansion in market multiples.

GRAYSCALE SEEKS TO TURN DIGITAL LARGE CAP FUND INTO ETF: Grayscale Investments is looking for approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to transition its Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund into an exchange-traded fund, according to a Tuesday filing. The multi-token fund, which currently trades over the counter, tracks a market cap-weighted index composed of digital currencies including bitcoin, ether, solana, Ripple Labs’ XRP token and Avalanche’s AVAX token. The New York Stock Exchange made the 19b-4 filing on behalf of Grayscale.

CRYPTO STOCK PLAYS: Publicly traded companies in the space include Bit Digital, Coinbase (COIN), Core Scientific (CORZ), Greenidge Generation, Mara Holdings (MARA), MicroStrategy, Riot Platforms (RIOT), Stronghold Digital Mining (SDIG) and TeraWulf (WULF).

PRICE ACTION: As of time of writing, bitcoin rose about 9% this week to $67,827 in U.S. dollars, according to CoinDesk.