Crypto Stocks Rally Pre-Market as Bitcoin Tops $46K

• Crypto stocks such as COIN, MSTR and mining firms CLSK, RIOT and MARA all ticked upward in pre-market trading on Friday.

• Bitcoin surpassed $46,000 for the first time in nearly a month during the Asian morning.

• Mining firm CleanSpark led the way, up nearly 20%, also thanks to positive results for Q3 2023 announced Thursday.

Cryptocurrency-related publicly traded companies showed healthy gains in pre-market trading on Friday as bitcoin {{BTC}} extended its rally, topping $46,000 for the first time in nearly a month and boosting its advance for the week to almost 10%.

Bitcoin has added just over 4% in the last 24 hours, while the CoinDesk 20 Index, which measures the overall performance of the digital asset market, rose around 2.6%.

Bitcoin miner CleanSpark (CLSK) led the way, climbing almost 20% as of 10:15 UTC. The company reported fiscal first-quarter profit of $25.9 million on Thursday compared with a $29 million loss the year before.

Riot Platforms (RIOT) and Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) also rallied, adding 7% and 8% respectively. Mining stocks are a recommended entry point for bitcoin exposure ahead of the forthcoming halving, in which the reward miners earn for new coins is cut by 50%, broker Bernstein said. The firm picked out CLSK and RIOT as its preferred stocks in a research report on Thursday.

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase (COIN) and software company MicroStrategy (MSTR), which holds around 190,000 BTC on its balance sheet, both showed gains in the region of 5%. BlackRock’s bitcoin exchange-traded fund (IBIT), the first of the new spot BTC ETFs to reach $2 billion in assets, added around 2.75%.