Coinbase Buckles 10% as Crypto Stocks Falter Despite Bitcoin Topping $45K

Crypto
exchange
giant
Coinbase
(COIN)
Tuesday
endured
its
worst
daily
decline
since
mid-2023
even
as
bitcoin

(BTC)
rallied
to
a

21-month
high.

Closing
the
session
at
just
under
$157,
shares
of
Coinbase
fell
9.8%
on
the
first
trading
session
of
the
year,

TradingView
data
shows.
The
move
extended

Friday’s
losses
amid
year-end
profit-taking
following
a
near-quintupling
in
the
stock
price
in
2023.

The
bitcoin
miners
also
failed
to
see
any
bump
from
the
bitcoin
rally,
reversing
big
early
moves
higher
to
close
modestly
in
the
red.
Marathon
Digital
(MARA)
and
Riot
Platforms
(RIOT)
were
down
1%-2%
from
Friday’s
close
and
nearly
10%
lower
than
their
opening
price.

A
rare
crypto
name
in
the
green
on
Tuesday
was
MicroStrategy
(MSTR)
which
closed
well
off
early
highs,
but
still
managed
a
7.9%
gain.

The
decline
among
crypto
stocks
came
as
BTC
spiked
above
$45,000
for
the
first
time
since
April
2022
as
market
participants
bought
ahead
of
what’s
expected
to
be
imminent
U.S.
regulatory
approval
for
a
spot
BTC
ETF.
Analysts
expect
that
such
vehicles
could
dramatically
broaden
the
investor
base
for
the
asset,
with
Galaxy
predicting
over

$14
billion
of
inflows
in
the
first
year.

At
press
time,
bitcoin
had
retreated
from
the
day’s
highs
back
to
$44,900,
still
up
3%
over
the
past
24
hours.

Singapore-based
10x
Research
said
in
a
Thursday
report
that
crypto
stocks
appeared
overvalued
compared
to
BTC
after
their
explosive
gains
last
quarter,
with
many
shares
doubling
or
more
over
the
year’s
final
weeks.

Coinbase
shares,
for
instance,
rallied
150%
from
late
October
to
a
$187
high
on
December
27.
Even
after
the
recent
drawdown,
the
stock
has
still
nearly
doubled
in
price
over
the
last
10
weeks.