5 min readWeek 44 was busy, with several Index constituents reporting results ahead of consensus, mirroring the broader S&P 500 trend that underscores the resilience of the consumer economy. Momentum also continued in financial services firms expanding into crypto infrastructure on the back of a more pro-business stance from the SEC and U.S. government, fueling an industry-wide arms race to modernize and accelerate financial infrastructure. Meanwhile, bitcoin miners pressed ahead with diversification into high-performance computing (HPC), as recent mega-cap tech earnings highlighted both the scarcity of power and the surging CAPEX cycle around data center build-outs.
Week 44 Key Developments in Blockchain Equities:
Index Performance: The Index declined (1.63%) this week amid heightened volatility driven by corporate earnings and the FOMC’s interest rate decision. The Federal Reserve lowered rates by 25 bps, as expected, and confirmed plans to end balance sheet runoff on December 1st. However, Chair Powell struck a cautious tone on the prospect of another cut in December, citing a lack of credible economic data stemming from the government shutdown, even as futures markets continue to price in an additional rate reduction by year-end.
Block Index Key Movers: 7-day top performers: Hut-8 (+19.5%), Softbank (+15.4%), Core Scientific (+14.8%) 7-day worst performers: Canaan (-29.5%), Galaxy Digital (-11.5%), Strategy (10.7%)
Index based financial and payments constituents expand exposure to blockchain infrastructure – This week, several of the Index’s financial services constituents made significant strides in advancing in the infrastructure supporting stablecoin rails and tokenised assets. Galaxy Digital announced an integration with Coinbase Prime, a distribution lift that could translate into higher, recurring fee income through expanded institutional access to staking. Mastercard is in late-stage talks to acquire Zero Hash for US$1.5–2.0 billion, a scale bet on stablecoin infrastructure that would embed enterprise-grade on/off-ramp capabilities directly into Mastercard’s global payments network. Securitize, a leading tokenisation platform backed by Index constituent BlackRock, is set to go public via SPAC at a US$1.25 billion valuation with a US$225 million PIPE, after having already tokenised over US$4 billion in assets. Meanwhile, Oracle unveiled its “Digital Assets Data Nexus”, a platform enabling banks to issue and manage tokenised financial products with enterprise-grade security and multi-ledger compatibility.
Outside the Index, Visa is adding support for four stablecoins across four blockchains with built-in fiat conversion; Revolut, which is targeting an IPO next year, has rolled out 1:1 USD-to-stablecoin swaps with zero fees or spreads; and Zelle announced a stablecoin-based cross-border payment initiative across its US$1 trillion network. Collectively, these developments underscore the rapid institutionalisation of blockchain infrastructure, much of which is represented within the Index.
Earnings Recap – Key Holdings:
Nextera Energy, PayPal, Mastercard, Samsung, Standard Chartered, Nomura Holdings, Coinbase, Strategy, Riot Platforms, SBI Holdings – Positive
Meta Platforms, MercadoLibre, Kinsus, Core Scientific - Mixed
Other news: CleanSpark partnered with Submer to deploy liquid-cooled, high-density systems across its 1 GW+ portfolio and 2 GW development pipeline, accelerating its shift into AI-focused data centers. The company also entered the Texas market with a 285 MW power acquisition and 271 acres of land. NextEra and Google sign a deal to restart the Duane Arnold nuclear power plant due to be competed in 2029. The proposed all-stock merger between Core Scientific and CoreWeave failed to receive shareholder approval, illustrating investor concerns about a low takeover valuation, and higher standalone company potential. TeraWulf announced a major expansion in partnership with Fluidstack, to add an additional 168 MW of critical IT load for 25 years representing US9.5bn in value, bringing total contracted capacity with Fluidstack to 510 MW.
Canaan secured a 4.5 MW mining server contract in Japan to support the country’s power-grid stabilisation efforts, marking a strategic step into energy-integrated computing. The company also unveiled its next-generation Avalon A16 bitcoin mining rigs, featuring a breakthrough ASIC chip that significantly improves energy efficiency and performance across large-scale mining operations. PayPal announced a strategic partnership with OpenAI that will embed PayPal’s digital wallet into ChatGPT, enabling users to purchase goods directly through the AI chat interface. Finally, Galaxy Digital priced an upsized offering of US$1.15 billion in exchangeable senior notes due 2031, used for building out its Helios data centre.
