- Shares of crypto firms have been the best performers in the market, outstripping energy, finance and tech respectively.
- The shares surged at a time when Bitcoin is testing its all-time high and Wall Street is piling into the market after the debut of the BTC ETF.
Not so long ago, cryptocurrencies were seen as a fad by professional investors on Wall Street. Many expected Bitcoin to be irrelevant by now, with renowned figures calling it worse than the Tulips bubble. However, Bitcoin is having the last laugh, with cryptocurrency firms not only getting listed on exchanges but also outperforming century-old industries.
According to a Bloomberg market index, cryptocurrency stocks have seen a 91 percent surge year-to-date. This is more than twice the growth of energy stocks at 40 percent, finance stocks at 24 percent and five times the growth of technology stocks at 19 percent.
The surge in cryptocurrency stocks comes in a year where most tokens have set new all-time highs. Bitcoin, the market leader, set its new ATH in April and after a correction in the months that followed, it’s now approaching these heights. At press time, BTC is trading at $63,800 after a 17 percent weekly surge.
The basket of cryptocurrency stocks is dominated by BTC mining companies, most of whom have performed quite well this year. They include Hut 8 Mining Corp, Marathon Digital Holdings and Bitfarms Ltd, all of whom have surged by at least 180 percent. Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd., a Mike Novogratz-led investment vehicle that set the record for the cryptocurrency sector’s first $1 billion acquisition deal for custodian BitGo has more than doubled this year.
The most high-profile cryptocurrency stock is Coinbase, an exchange which at a $80 billion market cap is bigger than Mitsubishi, the CME Group, New York Stock Exchange’s parent ICE and British insurance giant Aon.
Crypto too big for Wall Street to ignore
The surge in cryptocurrency stock value also comes at a time when Wall Street is getting into the industry in droves. For several months, institutional capital has been flowing into the industry every month. And while initially it was focused almost exclusively on BTC, other coins like Ethereum, Solana, Cardano and XRP have taken up a significant share of the money.
However, the biggest news is the Bitcoin ETF that was recently approved by the SEC and is now available to investors.
Read more: ProShares Bitcoin ETF registers record trading volumes on debut, BTC price crosses $64,000
Ben Johnson, the director of global ETF research at investment management and research firm Morningstar observed:
The one thing you can say for certain is that the advent of the era of the Bitcoin ETF opens up the opportunity for Wall Street to make money on Bitcoin in a way that it hadn’t been able to previously.
Research has showed that institutional investors and private wealth managers are becoming more open to cryptocurrency investment. A recent study by Citi Private Bank of family offices revealed that 23 percent had already invested in a cryptocurrency, with a further 25 percent revealing they are conducting research as they prepare to take the bold move.