MicroStrategy, Coinbase Shares Fall as Bitcoin Price Momentum Slows

Crypto stocks as a whole fell at the open on Monday after Bitcoin failed to maintain its momentum from early in the weekend, but some are starting to rebound as the day progresses.

As of 9:45 a.m. ET, Coinbase (COIN) was down 4% to $156.63. MicroStrategy (MSTR), the world’s largest Bitcoin holder, was down 5% to around $133, while the Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI) was down the same amount to a price of nearly $16.

In comparison, the S&P 500 was flat and the Nasdaq 100 was down 0.5% at the open on Monday. Meanwhile, after surging above $60,500 on Saturday, Bitcoin has now fallen below $58,000 at the time of writing. It has fallen nearly 4% in the past 24 hours.

Coinbase has recovered to nearly $162, down less than 1% on the day, while WGMI has climbed above $17, bringing its daily loss to nearly 2%. However, MicroStrategy has only recovered slightly at the time of writing, down nearly 4% on the day to a current price of $136.

Coinbase has underperformed Bitcoin year-to-date, rising just 3.5% on Monday compared to Bitcoin’s 31%. Similarly, despite its stellar performance to start the year, the fading hype around CleanSpark (CLSK) in recent months has pushed WGMI into negative territory compared to January 1.

By contrast, MSTR is up 91%, outpacing Bitcoin’s gains during the crypto boom in early March. MetaPlanet, a much smaller company based in Japan, is up 544% after adopting its own MicroStrategy-inspired Bitcoin strategy in April.

In recent weeks, both companies have doubled down on their BTC-centric strategies, with MetaPlanet announcing another $2 million BTC purchase last week, and MicroStrategy purchasing an additional $1.1 billion BTC shortly after.

In a report released Sunday, Canaccord Genuity set its price target for MSTR at $173, up 30% from today’s price. “Our price target is derived assuming a 20% one-year appreciation in BTC from current spot prices, a 15% increase in the value of the software business, and our assumption that the current sum-of-the-parts premium remains intact.”

DeFi Technologies, a Canadian fintech company with multiple cryptocurrencies on its balance sheet, is also up 283% this year and bucked the downtrend on Monday with a 1.5% gain.

The Federal Reserve is expected to announce its first interest rate cut in years on Wednesday, which could have complex implications for the crypto and stock markets. At the time of writing, futures markets are split on whether the cut will be 25 or 50 basis points, with increasing favor for the latter.

Edited by Andrew Hayward