Riot Blockchain Inc. (RIOT) are down over 5% to start the week. The company's stock is down at an interesting time. The company announced a milestone investment on Monday. The company's portfolio holdings, Coinsquare, closed a CAD$10.5 million investment.
The company's press release says that a prominent asset manager with a trillion in assets under management led the funding round. Coinsquare's valuation price is up three times from September.
"We are thrilled with this latest sign of confidence in Coinsquare, the digital currency market, and the important role Coinsquare is playing in growing this market in Canada," said John O'Rourke, chairman and CEO of Riot Blockchain.
Riot's investment will help the company expand its plans for a digital currency exchange.
The company's stock has been a trendy choice on Wall Street. The stock rallied in mid-November, with the company's stock gaining 15% in a single day. The company, a former biotech equipment company, focuses on acquiring blockchain and cryptocurrency businesses.
The stock is up over 80% in the trailing 30-day period.
Bioptix Inc. changed the company's name to Riot Blockchain Inc. in October to better represent the company's bitcoin-related business. The company made a bad investment that led Riot to choose to invest in bitcoin and start its own bitcoin mining operation.
The company's first move was to invest in Coinsquare, a company that operates a cryptocurrency exchange. The company has also noted their stake in Verady and Tesspay, both of which offer cryptocurrency services.
Bitcoin prices have had difficulty maintaining record highs this week after eyeing the $12,000 mark. The cryptocurrency has had a record-breaking month in December, with experts urging investors to remain cautious.
A correction is expected as the cryptocurrency swelled to over $11,800 on Sunday. Fear of correction may be the reason for Riot's shares falling this week.
Analysts are expecting the currency to undergo a pullback, with prices falling below the $11,000 mark.
Riot's shares falling this week are a surprise, as bitcoin prices continue to swell and CBOE Global Markets state that futures trading will begin this coming weekend.
CBOE will begin trading on Dec. 10 under the XBT ticker. CME Group (CME), CBOE's biggest rival, announced plans last week to begin futures contracts for bitcoin trading on Dec. 18.
Both regulators have received the nod from U.S. regulators to allow bitcoin to be listed. Larger institutes, including Ally Financial (ALLY) and TD Ameritrade (AMTD) have plans to make bitcoin futures available.
Bitcoin's first billionaires were also announced this week. The Winklevoss twins, both of whom have been major funders of bitcoin startups, are said to have broken the billionaire mark when bitcoin reached $11,500. The twins launched Winkdex and an exchange called Gemini. The platform allows withdrawal to a bitcoin wallet or to keep funds in the platform's own wallet.
The twins won a landmark case against Facebook (FB) in 2011 and purchased $11 million in bitcoin in 2013. The investment, if the twins still hold it today, would be worth over $1 billion. Bitcoin's market capitalization is now over $188.7 billion.
Disclosure: Author has no stake in the listed equities.
