By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR), Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) and other crypto-related stocks look set to extend last week’s losses as digital currencies take a beating amid rising geopolitical and economic uncertainties.
MicroStrategy stock fell 15% in Monday’s premarket trading after shedding nearly 18% Friday. Coinbase was down 11%. It lost over 13% in the last trading session.
Fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine and rising interest rates are spooking the markets, triggering a sharp erosion in value of assets considered risky. Cryptos are leading the fall, followed by stocks. Bank of Russia’s proposal to ban cryptos is also adding to the rout.
Other crypto-related stocks being knocked down in the premarket session include Hut 8 Mining (NASDAQ:HUT) (14% down), Bit Digital (NASDAQ:BTBT), Riot Blockchain (NASDAQ:RIOT) and Marathon Digital (NASDAQ:MARA) (all losing 12%). ADRs of Argo Blockchain (NASDAQ:ARBK) plunged 15%.
Bitcoin (BitfinexUSD), the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, fell more than 7% and traded just above $33,500. The crypto has more than halved since touching a lifetime high of $68,990.6 on Nov. 10. Analysis by Korea-based site CryptoQuant suggests that over 38% of all Bitcoin ever mined is now trading at a loss, compared to a peak ratio of 34% during the previous selloff in the middle of last year.
Other cryptos were plunging on Monday, too. Shiba Inu SHIB/USD slumped 16%, Polkadot Polkadot 14%, Ethereum ETH/USD 12% and Dogecoin DOGE/USD 8%.
The latest slide in cryptos followed the crisis in Kazakhstan, where people protested against rising fuel prices. The central Asian country is the world’s second largest crypto miner.