This morning, Thursday, Jan. 11, saw the first day of trading for Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, following a landmark ruling from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.
This is a huge, bullish moment for the crypto space, especially in the long- and mid-term, and as a result, shares of crypto-related stocks saw a surge in volume this morning.
However, today, virtually all of them are trending downward.
At the time of writing, Coinbase Global Inc. (Nasdaq: COIN), which operates the biggest U.S. crypto exchange, is down 6.16%. Riot Platforms (Nasdaq: RIOT), which operates North America's largest bitcoin mining facility, is down over 15.04%. Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: MARA) is down 14.49%. HIVE Digital Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: HIVE; TSX-V: HIVE), another buzzy bitcoin miner headquartered in Vancouver, has fallen 7.31%. This could be a good buying opportunity for these companies, as the outlook for the sector seems to be highly bullish.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin itself has gone up and down over the past day, ultimately little changed (up 0.02%).
Following the BTC ETF funds approval, JPMorgan analysts Reginald Smith and Charles Pearce wrote that "It is unclear whether the announcement will spur further near-term upside in bitcoin and mining stocks, or if investors will sell the news." They added that their "sense is mining stocks are due for a breather" as well.
It seems like that is what's happening, not to mention crypto investors flooding into these new ETFs, which are currently capturing the bulk of investor attention. The ETFs are a mixed bag, with Grayscale and Hashdex on the rise, but the rest of the nine ETFs falling to varying degrees.
Still, it's obvious that this is a watershed moment for cryptocurrencies. Investors will have a close eye on these new ETFs to see how closely they track the price of Bitcoin, and Bitcoin itself is likely due for a huge moment. It'll be interesting to see how it shakes out.
