Ether-linked stock prices jump after crypto coin reaches 6-month high
Cryptocurrency-related stocks rose in premarket trading on Friday, with shares linked to ether leading the charge after the No. The No. 2 crypto reached a six-month peak.
BitMine Immersion Technologies shares, which hold about $1 billion in ether, rose 14%. Bit Digital, BTCS and other ether holding companies added 4% each and 12.5% respectively.
Ether reached $3,675.81 - its highest level since January 6 - and was last up by 5% to $3,601.40. This outperformed bitcoin, which fell 0.7% to $118.961 after reaching a record high this week of $123,153.
BitMine, where Fundstrat’s Tom Lee is chairman of the Board and tech billionaire Peter Thiel serves as the top investor, announced on Thursday that it had acquired 300,657 Ether in only three weeks. The company aims to purchase about 5% over the ether supply, which currently stands 120,71 million.
Following the lead of Strategy, the largest corporate bitcoin holder, a number of companies have recently added ether to their financial statements. The bitcoins in Strategy's stockpile were acquired at a steep discount to the current price over time.
SharpLink, a company that has raised the $1 billion plan for its share sale by $5 billion, announced it would be increasing its current sale of shares to fund its ether treasury over the last seven weeks. Its shares increased 5.6%.
Stablecoins, which are dollar-pegged tokens, have increased their usage. Stablecoins, which are most commonly issued and traded on Ethereum's blockchain, drive up the demand for ether as a payment method.
The recent success of Circle IPO has further accelerated stablecoin growth, according to Matthew Dibb. He is the CIO of Astronaut Capital, a Singapore based crypto asset manager.
Stablecoins are a major benefit to Ethereum.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Thursday to create a regulatory structure for stablecoins. This was a major moment for the digital assets industry.
The time will tell if these treasury firms outperform the core ETF ETH, but the recent success of (Strategy), it won't deter them from trying.
BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF is up 10% this month compared to the ether-equivalent ETF, which has gained 36%.
Circle Internet, a stablecoin issuing company, gained 2.7% on Friday, while Coinbase Global, a crypto exchange, added 2%. (Reporting and editing by Saumyadeb Chkrabarty in Bengaluru)
(source: Reuters)
