Bitcoin Spike Ahead of Halving Boosts Coinbase, MicroStrategy Stock Prices

Bitcoin (BTC) isn’t the only asset up big today: crypto stocks are doing very well too. 

The biggest cryptocurrency by market cap is flirting with $72,000 after experiencing a lull last week. It’s now less than 3% off its all-time high of $73,737, according to data from CoinGecko. It touched that level in March. 

And company stocks giving exposure to the crypto industry are up as a result. MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), a self-proclaimed “Bitcoin development company,” is today up over 6%, trading at $1,531.67 per share. 

The software company, which has aggressively put BTC on its balance sheet this year, has increased its value massively this year—since January, its stock has more than doubled and is up over 122%. The company’s co-founder and chairman Michael Saylor has argued that the stock gives investors exposure to BTC in a safe way. The company now holds $15 billion in BTC. 

Bitcoin Regains $72K After Rocky Start to the Month

Bitcoin was flirting with its all time high as it hit $72,000 Monday morning. This comes after a rocky start to the month, finishing the first week of April below its 2021 high of $69,044. Bitcoin saw steady gains just shy of 2% over Saturday and Sunday, according to CoinGecko. But as Europe woke up for the new week, prices shot up 4.45% in 12 hours. This jump is in line with a spike in BTC futures open interest—a measure of the total number of outstanding Bitcoin futures or options contracts in...

Elsewhere, America’s biggest crypto exchange, San Francisco-based Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN), is also up by more than 6%. The exchange—which went public in 2021—has been on a roll this year: it dropped its Q4 2023 results in February showing that it was back in the black. 

Coinbase’s stock is now priced at $255.99 a pop; this year it has jumped by over 63%. 

While electric car giant Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA)—which is one of the biggest public companies to hold Bitcoin with over 9,000 BTC ($700 million in digital coins)—has jumped by more than 5% and is now trading for $173.39.

Bitcoin mining companies have risen marginally. Hut 8 Corp (NASDAQGS: HUT) has jumped less than 2%, and is now priced at $9.14; CleanSpark, which uses green energy to mine BTC, has jumped over 1% and is coming in at $15.79 per share.

Edited by Andrew Hayward