Coinbase Buckles 10% as Crypto Stocks Falter Despite Bitcoin Topping $45K

Crypto exchange giant Coinbase (COIN) Tuesday endured its worst daily decline since mid-2023 even as bitcoin (BTC) rallied to a 21-month high.

Closing the session at just under $157, shares of Coinbase fell 9.8% on the first trading session of the year, TradingView data shows. The move extended Friday's losses amid year-end profit-taking following a near-quintupling in the stock price in 2023.

The bitcoin miners also failed to see any bump from the bitcoin rally, reversing big early moves higher to close modestly in the red. Marathon Digital (MARA) and Riot Platforms (RIOT) were down 1%-2% from Friday's close and nearly 10% lower than their opening price.

A rare crypto name in the green on Tuesday was MicroStrategy (MSTR) which closed well off early highs, but still managed a 7.9% gain.

The decline among crypto stocks came as BTC spiked above $45,000 for the first time since April 2022 as market participants bought ahead of what's expected to be imminent U.S. regulatory approval for a spot BTC ETF. Analysts expect that such vehicles could dramatically broaden the investor base for the asset, with Galaxy predicting over $14 billion of inflows in the first year.

At press time, bitcoin had retreated from the day's highs back to $44,900, still up 3% over the past 24 hours.

Singapore-based 10x Research said in a Thursday report that crypto stocks appeared overvalued compared to BTC after their explosive gains last quarter, with many shares doubling or more over the year's final weeks.

Coinbase shares, for instance, rallied 150% from late October to a $187 high on December 27. Even after the recent drawdown, the stock has still nearly doubled in price over the last 10 weeks.