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Coinbase failed to maintain gains following an analyst’s upgrade and other cryptocurrency-related stocks such as
Marathon Digital extended losses after
Bitcoin
slumped
Coinbase (ticker: COIN) was down 2% to $229.58 after dropping more than 7% during the previous session as Bitcoin slid following the release of the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s meeting in December. The stock had traded higher earlier Thursday after analysts at BofA Global Research raised their rating on Coinbase to Buy from Neutral, and maintained their price target of $340. BofA said it was seeing “increasing signs of revenue diversification beyond retail crypto trading.”
Marathon Digital (MARA) fell 2.3% Thursday after sinking more than 13% on Wednesday;
Riot Blockchain (RIOT) was down 4.1% Thursday after declining 12% on Wednesday; and
MicroStrategy (MSTR) fell 3.3% following the previous session’s decline of 7.6%.
Bitcoin was at $42,955.90, down 7.6% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk. The decline by the world’s largest cryptocurrency coincided with a sharp downturn in tech stocks after Fed officials indicated that inflation readings and tight labor conditions could warrant an interest-rate increase “sooner or at a faster pace than participants had earlier anticipated.” Bitcoin has fallen 6.6% since the start of the year.
Ethereum,
the second-largest digital currency, was at $3,390, down 11.1% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk.
Bitcoin’s selloff could be another sign the cryptocurrency is acting more like a tech stock than a store of value, such as gold. The tech-heavy
Nasdaq
sank 3.3% on Wednesday, its largest one-day percentage drop since February.
Goldman Sachs has argued that Bitcoin could be worth $100,000 if investors accept that it really is digital gold.
Write to Joe Woelfel at joseph.woelfel@barrons.com