The market capitalization of the 12 most traded North American bitcoin mining stocks has declined by $6 billion since the new year, outstripping bitcoin’s sell-off.
Data shows that the aggregated market capitalization of 12 companies in the chart below reached as much as $16.8 billion before the year-end following a strong price appreciation momentum in Q4 and equity inflation.
However, following the listing of long-anticipated bitcoin ETFs earlier this month, bitcoin’s price began nosediving. It dropped from nearly $49,000 to below $42,000 as of writing amid the market’s “sell-the-news” sentiment.
Bitcoin mining stocks have since then experienced turbo-charged sell pressure with their total market capitalization plunging to just about $10 billion, down 37.5% since the New Year. Some, like Bit Digital, Terawulf, and Hut 8, saw more than 40% of the market capitalization vaporized.
Hut 8’s stock dropped as much as 20% on Thursday alone after a short-seller released unverified damaging claims, prompting the firm’s head of investor relations to dismiss “false rumors” on X.
A dozen bitcoin spot ETFs began trading on Jan. 11. While BlackRock and Fidelity each have seen more than $ 1 billion of asset inflows over the past few days, they were dwarfed by the asset outflows from holders of Grayscale’s ETF, which is converted from the GBTC trust.
JP Morgan said in a recent research note that bitcoin could face further selling pressure if GBTC investors continue to take profit with asset outflows without shifting to other spot ETFs.