Crypto-related stocks opened Wednesday’s US session with significant gains like bitcoin rose to over $72,000 for the first time in nearly a month.
Crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) jumped over $200 to its strongest price since late January, up 12% in the first minutes of trading. Strategy ( MSTR ), the largest corporate bitcoin holder, rose nearly 9% to a one-month high.
Galaxy Digital (GLXY), Robinhood (HOOD) and Ethereum treasury BitMine (BMNR) rose 6%-8%. Stablecoin issuer Circle (CRCL) rose another 6%, now up over 70% in the week since its fourth quarter earnings report.
Bitcoin miners, increasingly linked to artificial intelligence data center construction, also rallied after Tuesday’s selloff. Bitfarms (BITF), Hive (HIVE), Hut 8 (HUT) and IREN saw gains of 6%-10%.
The broader U.S. stock market also saw gains, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 each up about 1% in early action.
The strong early showing came as bitcoin jumped to $72,600 at the start of the US session, its highest price since early February. Recently, it pared some of the gains and retreated to $71,500, still up about 5% over the last 24 hours.
The $70,000-$72,000 range, which capped previous rally attempts over the past month, is a crucial zone for bitcoin to overcome if this rally is to last.
Bitcoin’s outperformance relative to stocks comes after crypto assets have massively underperformed every other asset class over the past two months, which may explain why it is now diverging, according to Wintermute OTC trader Jasper De Maere. Another factor could be that, unlike stocks, digital assets are not tied to supply chains, energy costs or other narratives that appear to weigh on prices, he wrote in a note.
De Maere also argued that stocks and crypto have become “substitute risk assets.” With uncertainty slowing inflows into equities, capital may instead rotate to digital assets. “Uncertainty slows the inflow of stocks, which creates opportunities for crypto, which is what we’re seeing now,” he said. Still, he warned that the outperformance may not last. “The situation is fluid,” and a chain reaction of longer tension resulting in higher energy prices, sticky inflation, which could lower the odds of another rate cut, would be negative for crypto.
For now, he expects volatility to continue until there is greater clarity.
