Goldman Sachs and Fidelity Attracted by Digital Currencies

At least two major financial firms,Goldman Sachs and Fidelity,are actively searching out the realm of Bitcoin and Ethereum as investor demand for exposure to digital currencies swells.A Goldman spokeswoman told The Wall Street Journal that:
In response to client interest in digital currencies,we are exploring how best to serve them in this space.*
Indeed,Goldman has been following the currencies for some time now.One of its vice presidents issued a report on Bitcoin price action earlier this year,when it sharply increased to more than 5,000 dollars.The price has since declined all the way to below 1,000,before recovering  to over 4,000.*
About 75 funds related to digital currencies have sprung up so far.*
Privately held Fidelity Investments,Inc. have also been probing this prospect,with CEO Abigail Johnson revealing they have made several venture investments in Bitcoin-related businesses and are looking at the blockchain technologies that underlie the currencies with a number of top universities.
Fidelity has gone even farther than Goldman,setting up a digital currency mining operation for educational purposes that uses hardware from 21 Inc.Ms.Johnson said:
We set up a small Bitcoin and Ethereum mining operation...that miraculously now is making a lot of money.*
The Ark Innovation exchange-traded fund provides exposure to digital currencies and other advanced concepts.*
Among the skeptics,JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has dismissed digital currencies as being a fraud.*
At time of publication,the currency prices were:
Bitcoin (BTC) 4360.00 +1.20%
Ethereum (ETH) 294.97 -2.13%
Bitcoin Futures 4318.00 + 1.38%*
Goldman Sachs (GS),Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK)

Indirect Investing in Cryptocurrencies - a path for cautious investors

There are a number of companies who have included cryptocurrencies,aka digital currencies,such as Bitcoin and Ether in their operations in one way or another.Buying stocks of these companies,therefore,is a way for more conservative investors to participate in the cryptocurrency sector as a part of their portfolios.After all,cryptocurrencies are only one aspect of these businesses,and by no means the only thing they have going for them.*
First of all,companies such as Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia are manufacturing graphics cards,or GPUs,that speculators need for discovering currency mining algorithms.These are especially powerful cards,not the general GPUs.*
Online video gaming firm Zynga was an early adopter of Bitcoin transactions.The company had a good Q1 2017 and its stock price had appreciated 44% year to date as of late June.The fact that Zynga accepts Bitcoin makes it an attractive place to play games for the growing crowd of digital currency owners.*
Paypal has formed partnerships with three Bitcoin-based service providers.More and more people want to transact in Bitcoin,so Paypal has positioned itself to help them do just that.*
ARK Web X.O ETF invests primarily in innovative technology firms.The Bitcoin Investment Trust is its largest holding,at 8.8% of its portfolio as of March 2017.Other holdings in the etf include such firms as AthenaHealth,Amazon,Tesla,Netflix,Alphabet (Google) and Facebook.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD),ARK Web X.O ETF (NYSEArca:ARKW),Nvidia Inc (NVID),Paypal Holdings Inc (PYPL),Zynga Inc (ZNGA)