Crypto-related stocks took a hit on Wednesday with recently high-flying bitcoin miners with artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure taking the biggest hit.
Bitfarms (BITF), Cipher Mining (CIFR), Hut 8 (HUT) and fell 10%-15% in the early hours of the session. Galaxy ( GLXY ), the digital asset investment firm with a growing data center operation, was knocked down 15% more than erasing all its gains after Tuesday’s earnings report.
CoinShares Bitcoin Mining ETF (WGMI), a proxy for the sector, was 7% lower.
Crypto stocks outside of mining were also not spared. Bakkt Holdings ( BKKT ), which surged over 300% earlier this month, sank another 7.5% and is now down nearly 40% in a week. Strategy ( MSTR ), the world’s largest corporate bitcoin holder, fell 4% to below $290.
A check of other names like Coinbase (COIN), Robinhood (HOOD), Bullish (BLSH) and Gemini find more sharp losses in the 5%-6% range.
Although still holding the $108,000 area, bitcoin remained significantly lower after touching $114,000 on Tuesday. On Wall Street, the Nasdaq was down 1%, with chip makers particularly hard hit.
BTC miners AI trading cools off
The steep decline in BTC miners suggests that their multi-month rally, fueled by investor optimism to land lucrative data center deals, petered out as markets turned away from risk.
At the peak of artificial intelligence and high-performance computing, the combined market value of related companies exceeded $95 billion. That has since fallen to about $82 billion, according to Farside data.
Bitfarms (BITF) rose more than 400% from September, but has since fallen about 40%, and is now trading just above $4 a share. stock. IREN ( IREN ), which was up about 400% year-to-date and 200% since September, is down about 30% from its all-time high of $73, currently trading near $52.
