Bitcoin’s rally above $35,000 is pushing higher the shares of several crypto-related firms, with investor optimism increasing alongside the likely approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF.
Bitcoin mining stocks led the gains on Tuesday morning, with Marathon Digital Holdings and Riot Platforms up 18% and 15%, respectively. Shares of the largest U.S.-based crypto exchange, Coinbase, were up 15%, to about $89, while Bitcoin HODLer MicroStrategy was up 13%, at $427, just after the market opened Tuesday.
Two of the three major indices closed down on Monday, including the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which posted a decline of 0.6%, or 191 points, and the S&P 500, which fell 0.2%. Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.3%.
The surge in crypto-related stocks follows a downturn in 2022, which pushed some of them to the brink. After closing at $328 on its public debut in 2021, Coinbase’s stock dropped to as low as $35 in 2022 as crypto prices slumped across the board.
Tuesday’s rally comes as Bitcoin broke through the $35,000 level for the first time since 2022, before paring back gains, to about $34,400. The increase is a jump from its Monday performance when the cryptocurrency broke through the psychologically important level of $30,000. Bitcoin now makes up more than half of the overall crypto market, according to CoinGecko, thanks to a flurry of inflows over the past few days.
On Monday, a court of appeals made official Grayscale’s victory over the agency in a lawsuit over the SEC’s decision to deny the asset manager’s bid to create a spot Bitcoin ETF in 2022. The agency has yet to officially approve Grayscale’s application.
Other TradFi heavyweights such as BlackRock and Fidelity have also filed applications to create a spot Bitcoin ETF, which gives investors more direct exposure to the world’s largest cryptocurrency.
On Monday, BlackRock took a step forward in preparing to offer the investment product by registering a ticker—IBTC—for its iShares Bitcoin Trust with the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, which provides clearing and settlement services to financial markets. An amendment to BlackRock’s ETF application filed last week also showed that a seed investor could fund the investment vehicle as soon as this month, although that move doesn’t necessarily correlate with when the spot Bitcoin ETF would begin trading.
