Barclays, one of the largest banks in the world, says that Bitcoin remains a viable long-term investment option. This news has been received with confusion from the crypto space since Barclays is the same bank that froze customers’ funds trying to purchase crypto and bitcoin back in 2020.
“Barclays remains positive on Bitcoin; sees Miner Core Scientific as ‘best-in-class Leverage play.’
A little time and exposure to the asset have changed their minds.
Crypto Mining Company “Core Scientific”
During Bitcoin’s September onslaught, Core Scientific, one of the largest mining companies in the United States, produced 1213 BTC. The company also sold 1576 BTC at an average price of $20,460.
Barclays thinks this company is the ‘best-in-class” leverage play in crypto, which means that Core Scientific is one of the lowest-risk crypto companies to invest in. The crypto mining company has been performing poorly profit-wise through the bear market.
According to data from their Q2 2022 Performance Summary, the company reeled in $164.0M in revenue while incurring -$861.7M in losses due to goodwill impairment. While the numbers (profit-wise) don’t look pretty, Core Scientific mining operations have been exemplary compared to the competition.
In the first half of 2022, the company mined 6,567 BTC. In comparison, the immediate next-best performing crypto mining company, Riot, mined only 2,800 BTC. Perhaps this is the reason for the buy-equivalent solid rating from Barclays bank.
Despite Core Scientific’s heavy losses, it still gains goodwill from other financial players.
Bitcoin Adoption Forges Ahead
By giving core scientific an overweight rating, Barclay’s bank is admitting that CORZ, Core Scientific’s stock, deserves more weight than it currently has. Barclays can’t acknowledge Core Scientific’s performance as a company without evaluating the asset it deals in.
On the other hand, the Quant System screened CORZ as a strong sell, warning investors to be cautious of the stock as it could perform badly come September. Since that call, at the end of August, CORZ has dropped about 38%.
While investors still have mixed feelings about Barclay’s freezing accounts of potential crypto investors, this stock rating partially corrects the lousy blood developed between the bank and its U.K customers.
Closing Thoughts
There has been constant tension between Bitcoin and banks since the invention of this asset. The mantra has been., “Buy Bitcoin, Bye Banks.” To have the same banks vouch for Bitcoin presents a conflict of interest on their side. Could they have an ulterior motive? Only time will tell.
The rise of CBDCs is a clear indication of where banks lie. While the bitcoin community is happy with such a vote of confidence, they are not blind to the long game. This can be deduced from the general response of the Crypto Twitter Community to this news.
What hypocritical bankers when they prevent people from using their banks to buy cryptocurrencies while they themselves are acquiring shares in Ciobase.
— Terry Peng
