Bitcoin Mines, Microstrategy Stocks Rally As BTC Price Hits $50.3K
Bitcoin (BTC) rebounded to a two-year high of $50,363 on February 12, positively impacting crypto and mining stocks. MicroStrategy (MSRL) and crypto-mining stocks posted double-digit gains last week, somewhat mirroring BTC's 17.5% gain over the same period.
Microstrategy betting on BTC costs
MSTR shares have risen 11 percent to $719 in the past 24 hours and are up 33 percent in the past seven days.
The software company and its founder and chairman, Michael Saylor, are known for supporting bitcoin as digital gold and a store of value, and for the company's massive BTC holdings. The company currently has 190,000 BTC worth $8.1 billion in its treasury hedged against inflation.
He bought an additional 850 BTC in January, as Michael Seiler revealed on February 7 on social media platform X.
In January, @MicroStrategy acquired an additional 850 BTC for $37.2 million and now has 190,000 BTC. Join us at 5pm ET as we discuss our Q4 2023 financial results and answer questions about our #bitcoin strategy and business outlook. $MSTR https://t.co/j5SbcELsue
— Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) February 6, 2024
MicroStrategy became the first publicly listed firm to add Bitcoin to its balance sheet in December 2020. Since then, its share price has grown by 300%, this growth has been observed to move together with the main cryptocurrency, indicating a strong connection between. MSTR and BTC.
The chart above shows that the price of MSTR reached a high of $712 on February 12, the same day that Bitcoin hit a high of $50,363. The correlation between MSTR and BTC now stands at 0.94, indicating a strong correlation between the price movements of the two assets.
Bitcoin mining stocks follow the growth of the BTC price
Bitcoin mining stocks have followed BTC's recent price action. Riot Platforms (RIOT) – one of the largest Bitcoin mining companies by market capitalization – posted a 55% gain last week.
Since hitting a low of $9.64 on January 19, RIOT's price has risen 70% and reached a high of $16.35 on February 12.
Marathon Digital Holdings, one of the largest Bitcoin miners, has posted gains of 60% in the past seven days.
Hive Blockchain Technologies (HIVE) stock price increased by 28%.
As conditions became more challenging before the halving, Bitcoin's price growth boosted miners' profitability.
The increase in Bitcoin mining difficulty is a sign of the maturity and strength of the Bitcoin network. With the expected decline in block rewards, it proves the network's ability to attract mining infrastructure investments with miners looking to remain profitable.
Data from Coinwarz shows that on February 12, Bitcoin's mining difficulty reached an all-time high of 75.50 trillion hashes.
However, Luxor's hashprice index, which measures how much a miner earns from the power they use on the Bitcoin blockchain, is up 16 percent this week. This reflects increased rewards due to Bitcoin price growth.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and business activity involves risk, and readers should do their own research when making a decision.
