The Crypto Report
India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, has quietly established a new internal unit dedicated exclusively to researching and regulating new emerging technologies, specifically cryptocurrency, blockchain and artificial intelligence, the Economic Times reported.
Bitcoin prices have picked up where they left off last week, trading higher Monday. “Despite what the doom mongers would want you to believe, the recent selloff was only ever going to be temporary and prices were bound to rise again relatively quickly — as they are now doing,” wrote Nigel Green, founder and chief executive of deVere Group in an email to MarketWatch.
Bitcoin was trading 0.49% higher to US$6,728, while Ethereum was up 1.34% toUS$277.52.
Still, demand for graphics cards has slumped back to pre-cryptocurrency boom prices. The price of many graphics cards, normally used for video gaming but coopted for mining cryptocurrencies, has halved in recent months. The price of a top-level Nvidia GTX 1080 card fell from around US$1031 in January during the bitcoin boom to around US$500 Monday.
The Cann’ Report
Pot stocks were high on mergers, acquisitions, license agreements, and on expectations that major beverage makers including Diageo would strike deals with cannabis companies. There’s been consolidation in the world’s fastest growing industry and marijuana stocks continued to fly Monday on M&A activity.
Tilray Inc (NASDAQ:TLRY) stock shot up nearly 28.1% to US$56.32 on track to close at a new all-time high after it announced it had signed an agreement with the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation (NSLC) to supply cannabis to the adult-use cannabis market in Nova Scotia. Tilray’s affiliate High Park Holdings Ltd is one of 14 cannabis producers selected by the NSLC to supply Nova Scotia with cannabis products ahead of the legalization of marijuana on October 17. Tilray, which went public in July, reached an agreement last week with Ontario Cannabis Store, which also boosted its stock.
“We’re thrilled High Park will have the opportunity to supply the province of Nova Scotia with a safe, secure and reliable source of adult-use cannabis products,” said High Park CMO Adine Fabiani-Carter.
Separately, shares of Tilray, Cronos Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CRON) and several other pot companies soared last week on expectations that major beverage makers including alcoholic drinks giant Diageo Plc (NYSE:DEO) would strike deals with the cannabis companies. BNN Bloomberg TV reported last week that Diageo is holding discussions with at least three Canadian cannabis producers about a possible deal. Corona beer maker Constellation Brands (NYSE:STZ) recently announced plans to substantially raise its stake in Canopy Growth, to 38%.
READ: Tidal Royalty to buy Altmed from CannaRoyalty Corp in a C$8mln cash and royalty deal
Tidal Royalty Corp (CSE:RLTY, OTC:TDRYF) announced that it had secured a letter of intent (LOI) from CannaRoyalty Corp (CSE:CRZ, OTCMKTS:CNNRF) to buy Alternative Medical Enterprises LLC for C$8mln in a combined cash and stock deal. With the deal, Tidal Royal will acquire CannaRoyalty’s 6.14% ownership stake in Saratosa-based AltMed and a 3.5% royalty on global net sales of AltMed’s branded MüV™ line of transdermal patches, metered dose inhalers, and patent-pending transdermal gels.
Contact Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
Follow her on Twitter: @UttaraProactive