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Citi has assigned a ”Buy” rating to Michael Saylor’s struggling Bitcoin treasury firm Strategy, forecasting 61% upside over the next 12 months based on Bitcoin hitting the bank’s $181,000 price target. Strategy is a ‘’leveraged proxy’’ for Bitcoin’s performance, the Wall Street investment bank said in an Oct. 21 research note. It set a $485 price target for Strategy shares, assuming Bitcoin hits its 12-month price forecast and the company maintains its typical premium to net asset value. But its analysts warned that while the stock offers outsized upside in bull markets, it also magnifies downside losses. A 25% pullback in BTC, they warned, could swing Strategy’s NAV from a 35% premium to a discount and cut the stock’s value by as much as 61%. “The stock presents significant risks due to its positioning as a leveraged proxy for Bitcoin,” Citi analysts said. ”Its value is nearly 100% tied to the someti...

A former New York cop and alleged pedophile has described Sam Bankman-fried as the “least physically intimidating person,” in a letter pleading for the disgraced former FTX chief to be handed a light sentence. Writing to US district judge Lewis Kaplan, who is overseeing SBF’s sentencing, Carmine Simpson, who is currently incarcerated alongside Bankman-Fried, claimed, “I have had the honor to have gotten to know Sam over the past six months.” He added, “Sam is the most selfless person that I have ever had the privilege to meet,” and claims that “the world would be better with Bankman-Fried out of jail.” He then reasons that “incarceration would serve no benefit.” According to Simpson, one of the biggest “examples of Sam’s character” is that he has remained committed to his vegan diet of “ undercooked rice, a scoop of disgusting-looking beans, and week-old brown lettuce .” The letter also details how he has become a ta...

The former Coinbase exec settled the high profile wager 45 days ahead of time but remains convinced that a “fiat crisis” is inevitable. A $1 million Bitcoin (BTC) price bet has been closed out 97% under its target price , with its backer Balaji Srinivasan choosing instead to donate a total of $1.5 million to three different entities as a settlement. On May 2, Srinivasan, the former chief technology officer at Coinbase, said the bet had been “closed out by mutual agreement” 45 days ahead of time. As a settlement, Srinivasan paid pseudonymous Twitter user and self-titled “hyperinflation doubter” James Medlock $500,000, donated $500,000 to Bitcoin Core developers and gave an additional $500,000 to the non-profit charity Give Directly. I just burned a million to tell you they're printing trillions. pic.twitter.com/pX5622rjUO — Balaji (@balajis) May 2, 2023 “I settled the bet ahead of time and donated even more than I had committed,” Srinivasan tweeted. “I’m not in the habit o...