Coinbase, Strategy lead crypto stocks higher as bitcoin spikes above $72,000

Crypto-related stocks opened the Wednesday U.S. session with sizable gains as bitcoin BTC$72,364.59 surged above $72,000 for the first time in almost a month.

Crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) jumped above $200 to its strongest price since late January, up 12% in the first minutes of trading. Strategy (MSTR), the largest corporate bitcoin holder, advanced nearly 9% to a one-month high.

Galaxy Digital (GLXY), Robinhood (HOOD) and Ethereum treasury firm BitMine (BMNR) were up 6%-8%. Stablecoin issuer Circle (CRCL) climbed another 6%, now up over 70% in the week since its fourth-quarter earnings report.

Bitcoin miners, increasingly tied to the artificial intelligence data center buildout, also rebounded following the Tuesday selloff. Bitfarms (BITF), Hive (HIVE), Hut 8 (HUT) and IREN saw 6%-10% gains.

The broader U.S. equity market was also seeing gains, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 each higher by about 1% in early action.

The strong early showing came as bitcoin jumped to $72,600 at the start of the U.S. session, its highest price since early February. Recently, it pared some of the gains and retreated to $71,500, still up roughly 5% over the past 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 over equities comes after crypto assets have massively underperformed any other asset class over the past two months, which could 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 seem to be weighing on prices, he wrote in a note.

De Maere also argued that equities and crypto have become "substitute risk-assets." With uncertainty slowing inflows into stocks, capital may be rotating into digital assets instead. “Uncertainty is slowing down inflows in equities, which creates opportunity for crypto, which is what we’re seeing now,” he said. Still, he cautioned 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 persist until there is greater clarity.