5 of the best crypto stocks to prepare for a summer rebound

As soon as the current US president won the election last November, capital stampeded into the crypto industry. The ‘Trump Trade’ went full on. Bitcoin prices soared to six-digit levels – a level unimaginable just a few years back.

This euphoria, however, has softened somewhat in recent weeks. Tariffs, overstretched rallies, and inflationary uncertainties have all put a brake on speculative positioning. Even the recent ‘Bitcoin Strategic Reserve‘ plan announce in early March failed to kick prices to new all-time highs. Many crypto-related stocks have already corrected by more than 30 percent since their November peaks. Not a full-fledge bear market (yet), although fear in the sector is high.

But with the US administration still supporting the industry, it seems the crypto bull run is not over. A correction, perhaps. For some, the recent steep pullbacks are viewed as an opportunity to re-load for a rebound in the summer. With this in mind, I highlight five crypto equity plays:

• Strategy (formerly Microstrategy, US:MSTR)
• iShares Bitcoin ETF (US:IBIT)
• Mara Holdings (US:MARA)
• Coinbase (US:COIN)
• Galaxy Holdings (TSX:GLXY)

1. Strategy (formerly Microstrategy) – Bitcoin stacker

Microstrategy (www.strategysofeware.com) is usually the first thing that springs to mind when investors look at crypto equities.

Previously, the tech company was an enterprise software firm that focused on analytics and data intelligence. Since the pandemic, however, it has devoted all its financial resources to acquiring Bitcoins. In the last update in late February, the firm now sits on a stash of 499,096 BTC. At $90k per coin, that’s worth a staggering $45 billion – making MSTR the largest Bitcoin holding entity amongst all public companies. With a market cap of nearly $80 billion, the market does put a premium on MSTR’s bitcoin holdings, a premium that varies dynamically over time. That’s why the MSTR stock price goes up and down more than Bitcoin itself. A high-beta play on BTC.

Given this immense volatility, MSTR offers incredible trading opportunities for short-term speculators.

2. Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) – a pure play on Bitcoin

Since 2024, investors could invest in Bitcoin via ETFs, just like shares. So popular is this vehicle that iShares Bitcoin (IBIT) accumulated $10 billion in assets just 50 days after launch. It was one of the fastest growing ETFs in 2024. It now has AUM worth $50 billions (see IBIT factsheet here).

The ETF mainly invests in Bitcoin. Shareholders of the instrument should be aware that this ETF moves according to Bitcoin prices. There will be times when it will generate zero returns. And prices could be volatile too. In February, for example, IBIT slumped from $60 to $45 – a fall of 25 percent. Therefore, appropriate risk sizing must be considered when buying IBIT.

One other ETF is the iShares Ethereum, ticker:ETHA (see factsheet here). Curiously, this instrument is vastly smaller with only $3.5 billion AUM.

 

3. Mara Holdings (MARA) – Bitcoin miners

In the last bull cycle, before ETFs and all that, crypto miners were the speculative vehicles of choice. Many miners saw their share prices soared during 2020-21 as capital dashed into these lowly capitalised companies. Mara Holdings, along with many other bitcoin miners, skyrocketed 30-40x in just over year. At the end of 2024, the mining company runs 400,000 mining rigs and over the course of that year, it mined 9,430 BTC, one of the largest miners in the market. Mara is also one of the holders of BTC, with 44,893 coins in its treasury.

During the 2022-2023 recovery, many miners (Mara, Riot, Hut8, Corz etc) saw a 5-10x rebound from their 2022 lows. That’s why many investors have continued to invest in these miners.

Theoretically, the sector should do well in the current bull run. But it didn’t, unfortunately. Many leading miners saw constant share price depreciation even though the general market is steadily rising. One possible reason is that capital, unlike the last bull run, is no longer focussing on miners, since there are other crypto ETFs choices. Another reason is that Bitcoin mining is no longer a ‘growth’ business as most BTCs are already mined (19.83 million). With a hard cap of 21 million, miners have to fight hard to get the dwindling reward, bearing in mind the bitcoin reward halving. And capital investments are critically required on those ever-improving mining techs and rigs. High Capex and falling prospective profits do not make a good combination.

Still, the sector is not really in a euphoric state right now. Another rally in Bitcoin may inject some life into the industry and, based on the sector’s past recoveries, offers some nice potential returns.

4. Coinbase (US:COIN) – crypto exchange benefits from increased volume

With the emergence of crypto coins a decade and a half ago, trading these assets became imperative. Coinbase was created back in 2013 to ride this secular trend. At the end of 2024, the company has about 8 million active users (account holders who trade monthly) and $400 billion in assets on its platform (see COIN’s annual report here). Net income totalled more than $2.5 billion last year. Business-wise, the company appears to be riding the crypto bull market well, with increased trading volume and users.

Stock-wise, however, Coinbase can be a highly volatile instrument. Its highly-anticipated IPO back in 2021 pushed Coinbase’s market value to almost $100 billion. Unfortunately, investors who bought during the hype (above $400) saw an eventual drawdown exceeding 80 percent. But during the 2023-2024 recovery, prices soared 800 percent. Still, at $222 a piece, prices have yet to recover above its IPO level.

In other words, Coinbase is highly cyclical crypto stock. Timing is crucial here.

5. Galaxy Digital Holdings (TSX:GLXY)

The last on the list of interesting digital-related stock is the Toronto-listed Galaxy Digital (TSX:GLXY).

The company (www.galaxy.com), under the leadership of Mike Novogratz, focuses on digital assets. The C$7 billion firm mainly trades and invests in many crypto-related assets. In late 2024, the company’s asset management has around $4.6 billion AUM. It also has some mining capability via Helios. (see GLXY’s 3Q presentation).

What is interesting about the company is that it offers turnkey solutions to institutional investors that wish to increase exposure to the crypto industry. This could be a growth business in the future. And Galaxy’s stock price appreciation is not bad too. From the low at $4 in 2023, the stock grow 8x, on par with many red-hot AI stocks. A technical rebound off the $20 support is a distinct possibility should Bitcoin prices recover.

 

Alternative: Cryptocurrency ETNs

If you want to trade cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum without actually owning Bitcoin and Ethereum you can use an on exchange-listed ETN or exchange-traded note. If you want the security of trading an on exchange product Saxo offers access to a couple of cryptocurrency exchange-traded notes:

• Bitcoin Tracker One: Listed on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm, Traded in EUR and SEK
• Ethereum Tracker One: Listed on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm, Traded in EUR and SEK

The advantage of these trackers is that if you don’t want leverage and don’t want to deal with the messy business of actually owning cryptocurrencies you can still get leverage. You can also deal in smaller trade sizes.

If you do want to trade crypto stocks on leverage, you can trade them through DMA CFDs and still go short.  It’s important to note, though that ETNs are different to ETFs in that they are underwritten by banks rather than assets, so are subject to additional risk that can affect pricing.