Explore these top crypto stocks to buy.
All eyes are on cryptocurrencies’ rises and falls as their popularity grows and investor interest continues to explode. Cryptocurrencies are more volatile than stocks, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Given that the crypto market is new, massive price swings have become a feature of the asset. This volatility may pose a risk to some investors, but that shouldn’t deter them from investing in digital assets altogether. There are ways of gaining access to the buzzy investment opportunity without a direct investment in a particular coin or token. Another way to gain exposure to crypto is by buying stocks that invest in crypto assets directly, support making the blockchain network more efficient or operate in the crypto market in some capacity. Here are seven popular stocks that are making waves in the crypto world.
MicroStrategy Inc. (ticker: MSTR)
MicroStrategy is a data analytics firm, but given its increasing allocation to Bitcoin on its balance sheet, MSTR is thought of as a proxy for Bitcoin. That is why this company immediately comes to mind as a top crypto stock. Michael Saylor, the CEO of MicroStrategy, is an outspoken supporter of Bitcoin. “MicroStrategy is the world’s largest publicly traded corporate owner of Bitcoin with over 114,000 bitcoins,” Saylor said in MSTR’s third-quarter earnings report. That amount is roughly $6 billion worth of the world’s largest cryptocurrency. Saylor also expressed that the company is looking for ways to raise capital and continue to add to its position in Bitcoin. Year to date, MSTR has rallied about 60%, and the stock tends to increase whenever the company buys more Bitcoin.
Tesla Inc. (TSLA)
Another company that can be viewed as a Bitcoin play is electric car company Tesla. TSLA has invested about $1.5 billion in digital assets. In 2021, the automaker announced that it would accept Bitcoin as a form of payment to purchase its electric vehicles, but Tesla CEO Elon Musk walked back those comments, citing environmental concerns from Bitcoin mining. Nevertheless, with TSLA owning more than 42,000 Bitcoins, its position today has increased to roughly $2 billion. The company periodically sells some Bitcoin to take profit, and it is clear that Tesla believes in the digital asset’s future potential since it holds a good chunk on its balance sheet. Bitcoin is quickly gaining mainstream adoption, and investing in Tesla can be one way to get exposure to cryptocurrency without directly buying crypto.
Coinbase Global Inc. (COIN)
Coinbase is a cryptocurrency exchange where users can buy, sell and store their cryptocurrency on its platform. The company’s mission is to increase participation in the crypto economy. The number of verified users in the second quarter was 68 million. In the third quarter, that number increased to 73 million. The crypto exchange company announced Coinbase NFT in October, a nonfungible token platform that makes NFTs more accessible. The company puts a portion of its profits toward adding more assets and products to its exchange to attract more users. Coinbase is also gaining popularity among institutional customers. In the company’s shareholder letter, Coinbase noted that institutions are increasingly seeing the exchange as a “one-stop shop” for activities related to managing crypto assets. Cryptocurrency is still in the early stages of adoption and development, so COIN can be a solid long-term investment as the crypto market continues to grow.
Square Inc. (Block) (SQ)
Square is renaming itself Block to better reflect the company’s new focus on the blockchain, effective Dec. 10. Block’s business includes Square, which helps businesses accept quick and secure payments through Cash App, a mobile payment service that allows users to transfer money; Spiral, a segment focused on open-source Bitcoin projects; Tidal, a global music and entertainment platform; and TBD, a decentralized peer-to-peer crypto exchange. Block CEO Jack Dorsey is a Bitcoin bull who sees the world’s most popular crypto as the currency of the internet. At a Bitcoin conference in Miami, Dorsey said, “I don’t think there is anything more important in my lifetime to work on,” when discussing Bitcoin. Investing in Block allows investors to put their dollars in a company whose executives are focused on strengthening the crypto ecosystem.
PayPal Holdings Inc. (PYPL)
A competitor to Square’s Cash App, PayPal is a global online payments system that allows money transfers and a variety of ways for people to get paid. Users can also buy and sell cryptocurrency on PayPal. This is a step for PayPal to make crypto an important part of its business. PayPal is in the crypto business because it sees the digitization of payments and currency becoming a reality, and PayPal CEO Dan Schulman called the shift to digital forms of currencies “inevitable” in a press statement. PayPal also owns Venmo, another popular mobile payment service that allows users to purchase digital assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin. The platform’s crypto offerings are available to hundreds of millions of users — 416 million on PayPal and more than 80 million on Venmo.
Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. (MARA)
Marathon Digital is the largest Bitcoin mining company in North America. Bitcoin mining is the activity that makes the whole crypto ecosystem exist. Mining verifies transactions, secures the blockchain and enables new Bitcoins to come into the market. Marathon has a mining fleet of 31,000 active miners and has about 7,649 Bitcoins with a market value of about $400 million. MARA has a market cap north of $4 billion, up about 300% year to date. The crypto mining company’s growth has been driven by its investment in miners to increase the hash rate, or the speed of mining, to make Bitcoin production more efficient and increase profitability. Marathon maintains a focus on sustainability and the environment by using renewable energy providers for its operations. It aims to be 100% carbon neutral by the end of 2022.
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA)
Investors looking for a long-term crypto play on blockchain should consider Nvidia Corp. Nvidia is a graphics processing unit, or GPU, manufacturer that makes chips to power devices consumers use every day. But most of its profitability comes from graphic cards made for gaming. As cryptocurrencies grow in popularity, Nvidia announced a new product: GPUs specifically for crypto mining, or cryptocurrency mining processors. These CMPs are designed for professional miners to create more efficiency in mining operations. While CMP sales did not meet expectations for the third quarter, the company reported record revenue of $7.1 billion for its latest quarter. Nvidia is a $764 billion company, and its shares have soared more than 135% year to date.
The best crypto stocks to buy:
MicroStrategy Inc. (MSTR)
Tesla Inc. (TSLA)
Coinbase Global Inc. (COIN)
Square Inc. (Block) (SQ)
PayPal Holdings Inc. (PYPL)
Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. (MARA)
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA)
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7 Best Cryptocurrency Stocks to Buy originally appeared on usnews.com
