Public Keys, a roundup of the week’s news from Decrypt It tracks key crypto-related companies that are publicly listed. BTC miners will be in for an awful lot of pain as fees continue to shrink. And Robinhood is slapped on the wrist by New Jersey for its debut prediction market.
Bitcoin – GameStop Presses Play
There was a lot of excitement for GameStop’s Q4 earnings report because it was heavily hinted—and then confirmed—that the company was going to start buying Bitcoin.
There’s an ever-growing list of public companies who buy Bitcoin.
The video game retailer, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the GME ticker, reported $4.8 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of February 1—up from $921 million the same time last year.
It’s not using that money to purchase Bitcoin. Instead, the company is raising $1.3 billion through a convertible-note offering. GME investors may not be happy, but traders have found a way of profiting from the news. Yesterday’s short volume was at its highest since Roaring Kitty returned as a meme stock influencer last summer.
GME lost the BTC gain and has fallen to a low of six months. GME had fallen 12.9% since Friday morning, and was trading at $22 by the afternoon.
On X (formerly Twitter), investors have noticed that over 71% of GME volumes are traded in dark pools, which is a trading platform outside the exchanges. It is a way for institutional investors like hedge funds and mutual funds to make large trades without needing to disclose them immediately.
Bitcoin Fees have shrunk to an incredible level
Bitcoin transaction fees are decreasing.
BlocksBridge Consulting reported in its weekly newsletter that transaction charges now only make up 1.25% total block rewards. It’s at its lowest since April 2022.
BlockBridge analysts warned that “without a substantial increase in Bitcoin market prices or an upsurge in transaction fees these miners could soon find themselves in a difficult situation. They may not be able compete.”
Bitcoin is currently in a massive crash, as are the other crypto currencies. According to CoinGecko, the global crypto market has fallen by 5.5% over the last 24 hours. Bitcoin’s price is also down 3.7% at $83,804.62.
Bitcoin miners have told Decrypt At a recent conference, it was revealed that turning data warehouses into high-performance computers and AI services has its challenges.
For starters, Bitcoin miners can—and often do—turn their rigs off to save money. When you are handling workloads at AI startups, this isn’t a good idea.
You can interrupt us [as Bitcoin miners]The traditional data center requires a lot of space. [to be] Shanon Squires of Compass Mining said: Decrypt, Adding this to the list is a costly mistake.
Paging CoreWeave quote
Speaking of Bitcoin miners pivoting to AI, Nvidia-backed AI hyperscaler CoreWeave began trading on the Nasdaq under the CRWV ticker—or so we were told.
CoreWeave started as a cryptocurrency miner focused solely on Ethereum, in 2019. It then gradually shifted to AI after Ethereum adopted a consensus based on proof-ofstake in 2022.
The CEO of the company rang the bell for the IPO on Friday. Shares were priced at 40 dollars and $1.5 billion was sought. CRWV raised $2.7billion at a price of $55 per stock.
For the majority of the afternoon, however, there was no stock quote available for CRWV. Around 1:30 PM Eastern Time the shares had already fallen by 5.5% and were now trading at $37.81. The share price recovered a little and seemed to have gained 2.4% on its first day.
Well…we're waiting. $CRWV pic.twitter.com/G4qqg4oQHL
— Nobody Special (@JG_Nuke) March 28, 2025
A person with knowledge of the issue who asked to remain anonymous Bloomberg Three unnamed investors purchased half of the $1.5 Billion offering. Nvidia also reportedly bought $250 million of the $1.5 billion offering. Other people have said that a small group of rich individuals inflated the IPO’s success to make it look more impressive than it would otherwise be. Bloomberg's reporting.
The background of CRWV’s founders is one of the concerns analysts raised. Matt Turck of FirstMark Venture Capital said on X that they have a background in finance, not technology.
The financials don’t look great, even though there are two finance cofounders.
Turck said in a post on his blog: “CoreWeave continues to be deeply unprofitable”. It incurred a net loss of $31M in 2022, which widened to $593.7 million in 2023 and $863.4 million in 2024 (-45% margin). In other words, expenses grew almost as fast as revenue – the 2024 net loss was about 45% of revenue (an improvement from 2023, when the net loss exceeded 2× annual revenue).”
Robin Hood: Time to go?
Robinhood has added some shine to its Gold Premium membership this week.
The crypto and stock trading platform, which trades on the Nasdaq under the HOOD ticker, is now going to include access to Robinhood Strategies, which aims to deliver "tailor, expert-managed portfolios,” tickets to exclusive events such as the Oscars, private jet travel, and same-day delivery of cash direct to a customer's doorstep.
This led Bernstein analysts to set a $105 price target for HOOD—more than double the company’s current share price of $41.65.
According to Close the lineState regulators are concerned about another update that the company has made: its sports prediction markets.
New Jersey’s Division of Gaming and Entertainment wrote to these companies to inform them that the services are unauthorised and shouldn’t be offered to residents of the state.
Kalshi, Robinhood and New Jersey residents have until midnight tonight to confirm receipt of this letter. This New Jersey resident was still able to see her Robinhood app at approximately 3 pm Eastern Time.
Other Keys
eToro is preparing for its initial public offering. As part of a SEC settlement, the trading platform eToro paired back all crypto products to Bitcoin, Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash. It is yet to be seen if eToro decides to bring crypto back to attract more users.
Its performance hasn’t been affected by the fact that it was on and off again with many crypto assets.
The company stated in its SEC filing that cryptocurrency accounted for 38 percent of their commissions, compared to 17 percent the previous year. Total commissions increased to $931 millions, up 46% since 2023.
This could be the bull driving current tech IPOs?
