Semiconductor chip maker Intel could enter the crypto space. The company bought about $800,000 in shares of the Coinbase (COIN) exchange on 26 June 2021. This is according to a report filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as reported by financial news website Barrons.
According to the Form 13F filed with the US regulator, Intel holds 3,014 Class A common shares of crypto company Coinbase Global Inc. The report also lists the chipmaker's other equity investments in companies such as Maxlinear Inc. (MXL), Shift4 Payments Inc. (FOUR) and McAfee Corp (MCFE).
Intel owns over $100 million in publicly traded investments, according to Barrons. As a result, the company had to disclose these investments to the commission. The report speculates on the possibility that Intel may have bought the shares in advance, before Coinbase debuted on the US stock market in April 2021.
Although this is Intel's first major investment in a crypto-related company, the chipmaker has shown an interest in bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology for years. In 2019, the company filed a patent application on bitcoin mining.
The document, filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office, describes a "system-on-a-chip (SOC)" that optimises the power consumption of BTC miners. The company was granted the patent.
In addition, an official blog post on the company's website describes the underlying technology that supports Bitcoin. In the post, Intel tries to describe how this technology can be used in many business areas:
"THE VALUE OF BLOCKCHAIN LIES IN ITS ABILITY TO PROVIDE A SECURE PLATFORM FOR EXCHANGE WHILE REDUCING THE COST AND COMPLEXITY OF TRANSACTIONS BY ELIMINATING THE NEED FOR INTERMEDIARIES AND THIRD-PARTY VERIFICATION. BLOCKCHAIN HAS THE POTENTIAL TO TRANSFORM NOT ONLY THE EXCHANGE OF ASSETS AND DATA, BUT ALSO BUSINESS PROCESSES, COMMERCE, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL SYSTEMS."
Shares of crypto exchange Coinbase make a comeback
Earlier, Coinbase released its quarterly report. The platform exceeded all expectations and managed to reach a trading volume of 462 billion dollars. As a result, the price of COIN recovered from the lows of $200 to almost $300.
The results report also shows an increase in institutional demand for cryptocurrencies - especially Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). The latter surpassed BTC in terms of trading volume on the platform for the first time.
"BTC AND ETH STILL ACCOUNT FOR ~50% OF OUR TRADING VOLUME. THE OTHER 50% IS THE LONG TAIL OF ALL OTHER ASSETS. NO SINGLE ONE OF THESE LONG TAIL ASSETS ACCOUNTS FOR MORE THAN 10% OF OUR TRADING VOLUME."
Currently (time of this writing), BTC is trading at $47,640 with a gain of 3.6% in the daily chart.
Coinbase doesn't offer fee-free trading. However, its fees are low compared with even the best crypto exchanges that charge fees and commission.
