What happened
Shares of crypto stocks continue their recent strength on Monday: Bitcoin (BTC -2.66%) rose over $50,000, Ethereum (ETH -1.66%) jumped to over $3,300, and Cardano (ADA -3.69%) jumped over 13% in early trading to $2.89.
The rise in crypto prices helped push crypto miners and equipment stocks sharply higher. Here's a look at the industry's top performers at 11:10 a.m. EDT:
- BIT Mining (BTCM -1.72%) rose as much as 15.1% early in trading today and is currently up 6.3%.
- Canaan (CAN -1.74%) was up 10.8% and is now up 7.9% for the day.
- Hut 8 Mining (HUT) jumped 11.2% and currently trades 8% higher than Friday's close.
- Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA 2.21%) was up 10% early and has given back most of those gains, trading only 2.2% higher for the day right now.
Rising crypto prices make the economics of mining crypto more attractive, which in turn increases demand for mining equipment. And all four of these companies are riding that demand wave right now.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
The news of cryptocurrencies themselves jumping is big news for crypto stocks. But it's the underlying trends in the industry that may be even more positive for crypto's future.
Today, PayPal (PYPL 2.90%) announced that it will allow U.K. users to buy, sell, and hold Bitcoin. This was the first international expansion of crypto for PayPal, which joins Square (SQ 2.32%) in growing its Bitcoin services.
PayPal and Square are particularly important to crypto because they're the disruptive financial intermediaries that could drive its adoption around the world. Legacy financial institutions and central banks are trying to figure out how to fight back or adapt to the growing crypto market, and they may have no choice but to adopt Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as legitimate securities or currencies. PayPal's news was just another step in that direction.
Now what
The volatility of crypto stocks can be stomach-wrenching, but it's become part of the industry. It was less than two weeks ago that crypto stocks dropped in part because of a $600 million hack of cryptocurrencies, but that news seems to be long forgotten at this point.
It certainly seems that cryptocurrencies, and Bitcoin in particular, are reaching a point of legitimacy around the world. More companies are starting to hold Bitcoin or accept it as payment or on their platforms. As that acceptance grows, Bitcoin and other cryptos could continue to move higher.
That's obviously good news for miners and mining equipment makers, who could see increased demand in the long term. Don't expect today's price move to result in growth next quarter, but if crypto becomes legitimized worldwide, there could be a lot of room for growth in crypto infrastructure stocks, which are obviously having a great day today.
