Public Keys is a weekly roundup from Decrypt that tracks the key publicly traded crypto companies. This week: Reading tea leaves during Circle and eToro quiet periods, Bitcoin miners selling a lot of Bitcoin, and Semler Scientific offering securities to raise cash to buy Bitcoin to secure a loan to pay the DOJ.
It’s oh so quiet
There was a jolt of excitement this week when USDC stablecoin issuer Circle told Decrypt the company is in a mandatory quiet period on account of having filed their S-1 at the start of the month.
Initially, it sounded like a subtle nod that the company would forge ahead with plans to go public even as rumors swirl that other newly announced tech IPOs are getting sidelined. The most commonly cited reason is President Donald Trump’s ongoing trade war and the uncertain future for tariffs.
But when Decrypt reached out to trading platform eToro, which has also submitted its paperwork to go public, the company had a similar response: “We are still in a quiet period and so can’t make any comment around a potential IPO,” a spokesperson said.
Even if unnamed sources speaking to Bloomberg or The Wall Street Journal are right about tech companies having second thoughts, the quiet period doesn’t just go away. Only an official withdrawal, filed with the SEC, can do that.
Mine the Bitcoin, sell the Bitcoin
It’s been another week of not-so-great news for Bitcoin miners, this time punctuated by companies selling their BTC.
Data firm CryptoQuant said in a Tuesday report that miners last week stepped up their selling as the price of the biggest cryptocurrency dropped below $80,000.
The firm said that on April 7, miners sold a total of 15,000 BTC—the third-largest daily outflow this year. That's at least $1.12 billion worth, based on the day's low price of less than $75,000.
Now, it’s not unusual that a Bitcoin mining firm would sell some of its BTC. But when the rate at which mining companies are selling shows a sharp uptick, it’s a sign of trouble.
In June 2024, miners liquidated $200 million worth of reserves as Bitcoin’s price hovered around $66,000. This newest round makes that pretty minor.
Semler’s DOJ settlement plan
Bitcoin treasury company and medical tech startup Semler Scientific, which trades on the Nasdaq under the SMLR ticker, disclosed in an SEC filing that it’s secured a loan from Coinbase Credit to pay what it hopes will be a settlement with the Department of Justice.
“If Semler Sci is able to reach a settlement with DOJ,” the company wrote, “Semler Sci intends to borrow under the Coinbase master loan agreement and use such proceeds (along with its cash on hand) to pay the proposed settlement with DOJ.”
The company has been under fire for claims of potential violations of a federal anti-fraud law related to its marketing of QuantaFlo, its flagship product.
It’s not unusual to have a master loan agreement with Coinbase Credit. But it gets a little murky when you consider that Semler just announced it’s making a $500 million securities offering to raise cash to buy more Bitcoin—some of which it will use as collateral to secure its Coinbase loan.
Bitcoin miners Hut 8 has a Coinbase line of credit for “general corporate purposes” and Cipher Mining has had a $10 million line of credit since last year. Another Bitcoin miner, CleanSpark, just increased its line of credit with Coinbase to $200 million and ditched its HODL strategy, saying it would begin “using a portion of its monthly Bitcoin production to support operational expenditures and repayment of the credit.”
Coinbase Credit shows up in many Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF filings, too. But, wait—put down your pitchforks. It’s not because the BTC and ETH backing those ETF shares is being lent out.
The funds, like iShares Bitcoin Trust, use Coinbase as a short-term liquidity provider to help pay sponsor fees and cover transaction costs without immediately needing to liquidate crypto assets.
Speaking of Coinbase
The crypto exchange, which trades on the Nasdaq under the COIN ticker, is once again the subject of a state securities regulator lawsuit.
Oregon regulators filed their complaint Friday, accusing the crypto exchange of violating state law by driving and promoting the sale of cryptocurrencies as unregistered securities. Earning “millions of dollars in fees as Oregonians faced huge losses,” the state attorney general said in a statement.
Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal was none too pleased, having very recently celebrated the dismissal of the SEC’s case against the company in February.
“The U.S. showed it was ready to turn the page on that dark, misguided chapter of unlawfully targeting the industry," Grewal wrote. "But Oregon's Attorney General refuses to face that reality and is trying to fight the same war all over again."
Other Keys
- Fake token, real pain. No, there isn’t an official token for Base, the Coinbase incubated Ethereum L2. But wow, our condolences to anyone who got rekt thinking there was one.
- Slimming down for Wall St. Kraken has had to reorganize and let go of some staff in preparation for going public. This comes just a few months after the company cut 15% of its staff in October. But good news: It’s now got stock and ETF trading on its platform.
- Down, but never out. It was only 11 days ago that Strategy warned investors that it likely won’t report a Q1 profit because of the $6 billion unrealized loss on the Bitcoin it bought since the start of the year. But that hasn’t stopped the original Bitcoin treasury company from adding even more BTC to its stash. MSTR’s Bitcoin treasury is close to matching the net worth of fictional Twilight character Carlisle Cullen. After that? Tolkien’s fire breathing Smaug and Disney’s Scrooge McDuck.
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