INDEUD: $NXTD EXPLODES WITH JOY ON SOME CRYPTO RELATED NEWS

Morning lads,

Been a bit busy priming the old money machine to spit out more, err, money. I’ve got NXTD spiking higher by a genteel 70% this morning on some crypto related news, in addition to a Maxim Group report with a $5 target on it.

Fit Pay, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of NXT-ID, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXTD) and Cascade Financial Technology Corp (Cascade FinTech) today announced an agreement for the joint development of a platform that gives cryptocurrency holders the ability to use the value of their currency to make purchases at millions of retail locations worldwide. The new platform will enable devices with stored value exchanged from cryptocurrency to be used for traditional payment transactions.

“As cryptocurrencies increase in value and distribution, the need to create new methods to monetize their value and enabling models for acceptance is the critical last mile,” said Michael Orlando, COO of NXT-ID and President of Fit Pay, Inc. “Our development effort with Cascade seeks to connect cryptocurrencies to the payment ecosystem as a natural extension of FitPay’s platform. It will give cryptocurrency holders the opportunity to effortlessly use their value to make purchases every day, just as they would use a credit or debit card, and transform the way people pay.”

Under the agreement, which is an extension of a current relationship between FitPay and Cascade, the two companies will collaborate to create a platform that seamlessly transfers cryptocurrency value into widely accepted forms of payment and stores that value on devices capable of making contactless payments. This will give cryptocurrency holders the ability to make transactions with value derived from cryptocurrency at any near field communication-enabled point of sale terminals.

“Cryptocurrencies are becoming a more common way of storing and transferring value, so there is a tremendous need to enable that value to be used to purchase goods and services,” said Cascade FinTech Founder and Chief Executive Officer Spencer Schmerling. “Our collaboration with FitPay will create a platform that does just that – connecting cryptocurrency to the mainstream economy in a whole new way.”

“As a security technology company, our mission to protect users, data and transmissions is very relevant to the emergence of cryptocurrencies and blockchain in general,” Gino Pereira CEO of NXT-ID said. “As such, we are working on ways that we can add value to this emerging space and this partnership is the first of anticipated future offerings from the company.”

And Via Maxim Group:

We believe FitPay is working on similar agreements with other Australian banks. In addition FitPay is collaborating with 15 OEMs that are integrating its’ payments platform into their devices, such as the case with the latest release of the Garmin (GRMN – $58.84 – NR) smart watch with payments capabilities. According to a survey from MasterCard (MA – $152.40 – NR), 82% of Australian consumer make a contactless payment each week, but much fewer use mobile contactless payments. The survey also indicates that there is still room for growth in terms of mobile contactless payment services including Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay. Just 26% of consumers are aware of having contactless payment options on their phones, and even among these only 28% use mobile contactless payments weekly. Reiterate Buy rating and price target of $5. Our price target is based on a 10-year DCF assuming a 23% discount rate. NXTD is in the process of cleaning up its balance sheet and at the same time striking what appears to be lucrative deals that will establish its technology for the wearable payments sector. We believe the biggest near-term catalyst is activation of payments capabilities on the new Garmin smart watch in 1H18. However, new product launches in Australia using FitPay’s technology could be another catalyst in 2018.

Stay tuned for my next pick.