Crypto Stocks Advance Pre-Market as Bitcoin Tops $51K, Market Cap Hits 26-Month High

U.S.-listed crypto companies rose Wednesday as bitcoin BTC climbed past $51,000 for the first time since December 2021, taking its market cap to $1 trillion.

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market value, added about 2.9% in the last 24 hours, while the CoinDesk 20 Index, a measure of the largest digital assets, rose around 2.1%. Ether ETH, the second-largest cryptocurrency, gained 3.2% to $2,754, the highest since May 2022, while the total crypto market cap touched $2 trillion for the first time since April that year.

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase (COIN) rose more than 7%, and software company MicroStrategy (MSTR), which holds around 190,000 BTC on its balance sheet, gained about 6.5%. BlackRock’s bitcoin exchange-traded fund (IBIT), which has the highest inflows among the new spot BTC ETFs, added around 3%.

Robinhood (HOOD), a trading platform that supports cryptocurrencies, climbed 12% after reporting higher-than-forecast fourth-quarter revenue and saying crypto revenue rose 10% from a year earlier to $43 million.

Iris Energy (IREN) led gains among miners, surging 14%. Marathon Digital (MARA) added 11% and Riot Platforms (RIOT) 8%.