- Shares of bitcoin miner Coinbase fell sharply on Tuesday despite a strong performance ahead of the BTC spot ETF decision.
- Cryptocurrency stocks look overvalued after doubling in value in the last quarter, according to a research firm.
Cryptocurrency giant Coinbase (COIN) suffered its worst daily drop since mid-2023 on Tuesday, even as Bitcoin [BTC] rose to a 21-month high .
Shares of Coinbase fell 9.8% in the first trading session of the year, closing the session just below $157, according to data from TradingView . The move added to Friday's losses amid year-end profit fixing after a nearly five-fold gain in share prices in 2023.
Bitcoin miners also failed to see any benefit from the Bitcoin rally, reversing the initial big move and closing in the red. Marathon Digital ( MARA ) and Riot Platforms ( RIOT ) were between 1% and 2% lower at Friday's close and about 10% off their opening price.
The rare crypto name on Green Tuesday was MicroStrategy (MSTR), which closed off its early highs but still managed to gain 7.9%.
The decline in cryptocurrency shares came after BTC climbed above $45,000 for the first time since April 2022 as market participants bought ahead of the approval of the spot BTC ETF by US regulators. Analysts believe such a mechanism could dramatically expand the investor base for the asset, as Galaxy expects inflows of more than $14 billion in its first year.
At press time, Bitcoin was still up 3% over the past 24 hours, from an intraday high of $44,900.
Singapore-based 10x Research said in a report Thursday that cryptocurrency stocks look overvalued compared to BTC after a strong rally in the last quarter, with many stocks doubling or more in the final weeks of the year.
For example, Coinbase shares have risen 150% since the end of October to $187 on December 27th. Even after the recent pullback, the share price has still roughly doubled over the past 10 weeks.
This story originally appeared on Coindesk