With Bitcoin At $34K, Consider These Crypto Stocks

Bitcoin prices have crashed from levels of around $62,000 in mid-April to just about $34,000 as of Wednesday. The crypto bear market appears to be driven by a host of factors, including China’s crackdown on Bitcoin trading and mining and Tesla’s unexpected reversal of its decision on accepting the digital currency as payment for its cars. Moreover, the U.S. Federal Reserve has turned increasingly hawkish following its mid-June meeting indicating that it could start hiking interest rates from 2023, rather than 2024. This is also likely putting pressure on non-productive assets such as cryptocurrency.

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Now, although the market sentiment for cryptos, in general, is clearly bearish, cryptocurrencies have the potential to be one of the most disruptive technologies of our time. Moreover, with increasing institutional interest, they appear to be here to stay as an asset class. Investors who want to play the long-term gains in cryptos, without exposing themselves to the volatility and boom and bust cycles in cryptocurrency pricing, should take a look at our indicative theme on Cryptocurrency Stocks which includes semiconductors, payments, and brokerage companies that have exposure to the cryptocurrency value chain. The theme has gained roughly 22% year-to-date, compared to the Nasdaq-100, which has returned about 15% over the same period. Within our theme, graphics processor major Nvidia has fared the best, with its stock rising by 53% year-to-date, driven by strong demand for its chips as well as its planned stock split. On the other side, processor major Advanced Micro Devices has been the worst performer, with its stock up by just about 2% this year.

[4/5/2021] Crypto Stocks To Watch

Cryptocurrency prices have surged this year. Crypto bellwether Bitcoin has almost doubled year-to-date to levels of about $60k as of the end of last week, as more institutional investors warm up to the currency, with companies such as Tesla also indicating that they will accept bitcoin payments from customers. However, investing in Bitcoin and other cryptos is risky at current levels. With Covid-19 cases on the decline and vaccination rates in the U.S. rising, the economic outlook is improving. Bond yields are also trending higher, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note rising from around 1% earlier this year to close to 1.70% currently. Considering this, investors are moving funds back to real-economy sectors, and it’s likely that non-productive assets such as Bitcoin will eventually be impacted. Our indicative theme on Cryptocurrency Stocks could be a safer way to play the long-term upside from cryptocurrencies, without taking a position in individual currencies. The theme, which includes semiconductor, payments, and brokerage companies that have exposure to the cryptocurrency value chain, is up by about 122% since 12/31/2019, compared to the S&P 500 which is up by about 24%. Here is a look at the recent developments for some of the stocks in our theme.

PayPal, a large online payments processor, allows customers to buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrencies. The company has taken this a step further, launching its “Checkout with Crypto” service last week, enabling U.S. customers to use their crypto holdings to pay at millions of online merchants worldwide.

Nvidia indicated a few weeks ago, that it would be launching a GPU that was dedicated to mining cryptocurrencies. Nvidia has seen gaming GPU shortages in the past, as its gaming processors were being used to mine cryptocurrency. The move should let the company better target the crypto mining space, while potentially alleviating GPU shortages for gaming.

CME Group, a derivatives exchange, plans to launch new Micro Bitcoin futures from early May, subject to regulatory approval. The smaller-sized futures contracts are a tenth of the size of one Bitcoin and will be targeted at institutions and sophisticated traders.

[3/16/2021] Crypto Stocks To Watch As Bitcoin Nears $55k

Cryptocurrency prices have surged this year, with Bitcoin now up by around 90% since early January, trading at levels of around $55k currently. However, Bitcoin looks quite risky at current levels due to a couple of factors. With Covid-19 cases on the decline, the economic outlook is improving and bond yields are also on the rise. Considering this, investors are likely to start moving funds back to real-economy sectors, and non-productive assets such as Bitcoin, which rallied big through the pandemic, could be impacted. Our indicative theme on Cryptocurrency Stocks could be a safer way to play the long-term upside from cryptocurrencies, without taking a position in individual currencies. The theme, which includes semiconductor, payments, and brokerage companies that have exposure to the cryptocurrency value chain, is up by about 124% since 12/31/2019, compared to the S&P 500 which is up by about 22%. Year-to-date, the theme is up by 4%, compared to the S&P 500 which is up around 5%. Within our theme, digital payments player Square has been the strongest performer, rising by 287% since the end of 2019, while exchange major CME Group has been the worst performer in our theme, rising by just about 4% over the same period.

[2/18/2021] Which Stocks Should You Buy As Bitcoin Hits $50k?

Cryptocurrency have continued their surge this year, driven by retail and institutional interest. While the crypto market bellwether Bitcoin has soared 5x over the last 12 months and by almost 80% year-to-date, lesser-known crypto Dogecoin is up by over 10x year-to-date. To be sure, these currencies remain a risky investment, given their relative lack of utility and extremely high volatility. Our indicative theme on Cryptocurrency Stocks – which includes semiconductor, payments, and brokerage companies that have exposure to the cryptocurrency value chain – could be a safer way to play the crypto space, without taking a position in individual currencies. The theme has returned about 151% since the end of 2019, compared to about 22% for the S&P 500. The theme is also up 14% year-to-date, versus about 5% for the S&P 500. Payments player Square remains the strongest performer in our theme, rising by over 330% since the end of 2019, driven by its Bitcoin exposure, and also by an increasing preference for digital payments among consumers and businesses. On the other side, financial exchange major CME Group has been the worst performer in our theme, down by about -5% over the same period.

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[Updated 1/20/2021] Cryptocurrency Stocks

Bitcoin prices have surged by more than 50% over the last month and remain up by about 4x over the 12 months, due to higher retail and institutional interest. That being said, Bitcoin remains a risky investment, given its relative lack of utility and extremely high volatility. Our indicative theme on Cryptocurrency Stocks – which includes semiconductor, payments, and brokerage companies that have some exposure to the cryptocurrency value chain – could be a safer way to play the crypto space, without betting on individual currencies. The theme has done well, rallying by over 100% over the last year. Below is a bit more about the key companies in the theme and how they have been faring.

Nvidia stock saw big gains over 2020, driven by growing demand for its GPUs from gaming consoles and data centers and its planned acquisition of CPU designer ARM. The company recently indicated that it could restart the production of dedicated crypto mining GPUs, which essentially remove the video outputs that are required for gaming.

Square a payments company, allows users to buy and sell bitcoin via its Cash mobile payment application. The company said that bitcoin-related Revenue surged by about 8x over the first nine months of 2020 to around $2.8 billion.

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PayPal a large online payments processor has also reported increasing engagement on its PayPay mobile app after it introduced support for bitcoin last October, with about half its crypto users opening the PayPal app daily.

CME Group the world’s largest financial derivatives exchange, also offers bitcoin futures contracts. The exchange has emerged as the world’s largest futures exchange for Bitcoin, with open interest – contracts traded but not squared off – for the cryptocurrency standing at $2.1 billion.

[Updated 12/7/2020] How Nvidia, Square & PayPal Stocks Are Benefiting From Soaring Bitcoin Prices

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Bitcoin prices have surged by over 160% year-to-date, driven by multiple factors including higher institutional interest, fintech companies Paypal and Square’s moves into the crypto space, and also by a view that scarce digital currency could be a hedge against inflation and a weakening U.S. dollar. Our indicative theme on Cryptocurrency Stocks – which includes semiconductor, payments, and brokerage companies that have some exposure to the cryptocurrency space – is up a solid 110% year-to-date, compared to the S&P 500 which is up by just about 14% over the same period. Key stocks in our theme include Square, PayPal Holdings, Nvidia, and CME Group.

Although crypto likely represents a small portion of these company’s revenues at the moment, it does have the potential to be big. For example, Payment apps Square and PayPal, who make money by buying bitcoin from brokers and selling them to their customers by adding a “spread” stand to benefit as prices and volumes rise. Square’s Cash App generated about $1.63 billion in Bitcoin-related sales in Q3 2020, an 11x jump year-over-year. Similarly, Nvidia also benefits from demand for its top-of-the-line GPUs such as the Ampere lineup from cryptocurrency miners.

[Updated 10/29/2020] Cryptocurrency Stocks To Watch

Interest in cryptocurrency is surging once again with Bitcoin prices up by almost 30% over the last month, driven by growing institutional interest and Paypal’s recent move to allow its customers to buy and sell certain cryptocurrencies. Our indicative theme on Cryptocurrency Stocks – which includes semiconductor, payments, and brokerage companies that have some exposure to the cryptocurrency space – is up 88% year-to-date, compared to the S&P 500 which is up by just about 5% over the same period. This theme could be of interest to investors who are looking for upside from cryptocurrency adoption and prices, but want to avoid buying into the currencies themselves considering the volatility, risk of fraud, or cyber theft, or potential portfolio mandates. Below is a bit more about the stocks in our theme and how they have fared this year.

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Square cash mobile wallet app has emerged as a very popular way for people to buy and sell Bitcoin. The stock has gained a whopping 183% year-to-date, as investors bet that Square’s digital payment solutions will continue to gain traction through and post Covid-19. The stock has dropped by about -9% over the last 5 trading days, however.

Nvidia a semiconductor company that is best known for its graphic processing units which are increasingly used in machine learning and AI, is also finding application in bitcoin mining. The stock has gained over 131% year to date although it declined by about -3% over the last week.

PayPal a large online payments processor, has indicated that it would allow customers to buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum directly within its PayPal and Venmo app. The stock is up by 88% this year and was down by about -1% over the last 5 trading days.

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Advanced Micro Devices is a semiconductor major that makes CPUs and GPUs, which are increasingly used in bitcoin mining. The stock has gained about 79% year-to-date and remained largely flat over the last 5 trading days.

CME Group the world’s largest financial derivatives exchange, also offers bitcoin futures contracts. The stock is down by about -18% year-to-date and declined by about -2% over the last week.

What if you’re looking for a more balanced portfolio instead? Here’s a high-quality portfolio that’s beaten the market.

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