U.S. Crypto-Adjacent Stocks Tumble Amid Bitcoin Crash

U.S. crypto-adjacent stocks faced a downturn in pre-market trading on Friday following a significant drop in the price of bitcoin (BTC), which hit its lowest level since February.

Among the hardest-hit stocks were Michael Saylor’s software company MicroStrategy (MSTR), which holds more than 210,000 BTC, and bitcoin miner Hut 8 (HUT), both experiencing declines of 8.5% and 9.5%, respectively.

Other mining firms such as Marathon Digital (MARA), CleanSpark (CLSK), and Riot Platforms (RIOT) also saw their shares drop between 6% to 7.5%. Additionally, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase (COIN) registered a 6.5% decrease.

As of mid-morning in Europe, Bitcoin was trading around $54,400, reflecting a 5.8% decrease over 24 hours. The cryptocurrency had earlier plummeted to $53,600, marking its lowest value since late February.

The decline coincided with the news that the now-defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox had transferred $2.6 billion worth of BTC to a new wallet and announced the initiation of creditor repayments a decade after its collapse. Concerns arose among traders regarding potential sell-offs by the recipients, creating widespread selling pressure.