4 Stocks Related To The Bitcoin Craze

Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies are all over the media. Most people do not know what they are or how they work.

What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a digital currency created in 2009. It follows the ideas set out in a white paper by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, whose true identity has yet to be verified. Bitcoin offers the promise of lower transaction fees than traditional online payment mechanisms and is operated by a decentralized authority, unlike government-issued currencies.

Today's market cap for all bitcoin (abbreviated BTC or, less frequently, XBT) in circulation exceeds $7 billion.There are no physical bitcoins, only balances kept on a public ledger in the cloud, that – along with all Bitcoin transactions – is verified by a massive amount of computing power. Bitcoins are not issued or backed by any banks or governments, nor are individual bitcoins valuable as a commodity. Despite its not being legal tender, Bitcoin charts high on popularity, and has triggered the launch of other virtual currencies collectively referred to as Altcoins.

To buy Bitcoins you don't have to expose yourself to cryptocurrencies to profit from it. Early investors that were able to forsee the potential of the blockchain-powered cryptocurrency became multimillionaires. There are opportunities with the digitalization of money with a few stocks. Bitcoin reached a new record high late Sunday, closing above $6,300 for the first time, just 10 days after it broke through the $6,000 mark.

(OTCMKTS: GBTC) https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GBTC?p=GBTC

If you love the Bitcoin story but just can’t see yourself putting up $2,500 for a single bitcoin, Bitcoin Services, Inc. (BTSC) Other OTC. Bitcoin Services, Inc. engages in the bitcoin and mining of other crypto currencies. The company offers bitcoin escrow service, which acts as a neutral third party between buyer and seller when doing business online; and Bitcoin mining services through running SHA256 double round hash verification processes in order to validate Bitcoin transactions and provide the requisite security for the public ledger of the Bitcoin network. It is also involved in the development and sale of blockchain software. The company was formerly known as Tulip BioMed, Inc. and changed its name to Bitcoin Services, Inc. in March 2016. The company was incorporated in 1997 and is headquartered in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is a name to put on your stocks to buy list. NVDA graphics cards, or GPUs, are incredibly popular with cryptocurrency miners. According to Engadget, “modern GPUs have enough general-purpose computing power to process money formats like Bitcoin much faster than a CPU alone.”

The problem is that standard GPUs aren’t purpose-driven for currency mining algorithms. So in response to the bitcoin craze, NVDA did what any company would do under the circumstance: create a mining-specific GPU.

Nvidia rival Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) has also jumped onboard the bitcoin bandwagon. Neither companies provided official confirmation about their mining GPUs. However, the broader takeaway is that cryptocurrencies are attracting significant attention from major players.

Furthermore, it’s not even bitcoin that provides the greatest opportunity for NVDA and other semiconductors. With a market capitalization exceeding $41 billion, the king of the cryptocurrencies is difficult and economically onerous to mine. But today, hundreds of smaller digital coins are circulating across the internet. Undoubtedly, several currency miners looking to make a speculative buck will be lured by NVDA and their powerhouse GPUs.

Online video game giant Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) is another stock to own for Bitcoin exposure. Turning the company around and 44% this year with the addition of Taylor Swift this stock is trending higher. They have over one billion people playing ZNGA games and Zynga was one of the first companies to adopt bitcoin transactions.