Coinbase edges higher while key Bitcoin mining stocks stage a broad rebound, even as a new Tether‑backed crypto stock slumps on debut and traders brace for a crucial Fed decision.
Key Takeaways
- Coinbase (COIN) finished the U.S. session up around 1% near $277, extending last week’s rebound in crypto‑linked equities. [1]
- Major Bitcoin miners — Marathon (MARA), Riot (RIOT), CleanSpark (CLSK), Hut 8 (HUT) and others — closed solidly higher, with several names gaining between 3% and 7%. [2]
- Bitcoin traded in a choppy $89,000–$93,000 range and hovered near $93,000 late in the afternoon, as investors looked ahead to a widely expected Fed rate cut on Wednesday. [3]
- A new Tether‑backed “digital asset treasury” company, Twenty One Capital (XXI), plunged nearly 20% in its trading debut, underscoring just how unforgiving the market remains for leveraged crypto plays. [4]
- On‑chain metrics such as Bitcoin’s “Hash Ribbons” flashed another miner‑capitulation buy signal near $90,000, highlighting ongoing stress in the mining sector even as share prices bounced. [5]
Market Snapshot: Crypto Stocks Into the Close
U.S. equities finished mixed but little changed on Tuesday as traders digested President Donald Trump’s approval of limited Nvidia H200 chip sales to China and the start of a two‑day Federal Reserve policy meeting. The Dow slipped roughly 0.3%, the Nasdaq added about 0.1%, and the S&P 500 drifted around flat in late trade. [6]
In digital assets, Bitcoin spent the day whipsawing between roughly $89,700 and $93,000. CryptoNews pegged BTC near $90,480 on Tuesday morning (UTC) after a 1.1% drop from the prior day, while later in the U.S. afternoon Investopedia cited Bitcoin around $92,900, bouncing from overnight lows below $89,600. [7]
Despite the intraday volatility, the bigger picture hasn’t changed: Bitcoin remains more than 25% below its October record above $126,000, and that drawdown continues to ripple through crypto‑linked equities. [8]
Coinbase Stock Today: Modest Gain, Strong Narrative
Coinbase Global (NASDAQ: COIN) closed the session just above $277, up around 1.1% on the day according to StockAnalysis data, with after‑hours trading roughly flat. [9]
A TradingView “Stock Story” note framed the move as part of a broader crypto sentiment improvement driven by several catalysts: [10]
- MicroStrategy / “Strategy” bought another 10,624 BTC (about $963 million), lifting its holdings to roughly 660,000 BTC and reinforcing its role as the flagship corporate Bitcoin treasury. [11]
- PNC Bank launched direct Bitcoin trading for private‑bank clients, powered by Coinbase’s “crypto‑as‑a‑service” infrastructure — a high‑profile example of a major U.S. bank leaning on Coinbase to serve wealthy clients who want spot BTC exposure. [12]
- Coinbase reopened new‑user registrations in India after a two‑year pause and rolled out additional spot pairs and 24/7 altcoin futures, expanding its global product footprint. [13]
Zooming out, recent research on crypto‑equity positioning treats COIN as the “core U.S. exchange play” — a way to bet on regulated crypto trading volumes and institutional adoption rather than any single token. TechStock² That role was on display today: as Bitcoin stabilized above key support, investors leaned back into Coinbase as a liquid, large‑cap proxy.
At the same time, Coinbase still sits well below its 2025 highs. TradingView notes that at roughly $277 the stock trades more than 30% under its 52‑week peak around $420, a reminder that even after this year’s rally, multiple contraction and regulatory risk remain powerful counterweights. [14]
Bitcoin Miners: Broad Relief Rally After a Brutal Stretch
If Coinbase was the measured move of the day, Bitcoin miners were the high‑beta expression of renewed risk appetite.
Based on closing data from StockAnalysis and other quote services, several key miners moved as follows: [15]
- Marathon (MARA): Finished a bit above $12.20, up roughly 1%–1.5% on the day.
- Riot Platforms (RIOT): Closed near $15.5, gaining about 3.7%.
- CleanSpark (CLSK): Jumped to around $14.8–$15.1, a 6–7% advance and another big daily swing for one of the sector’s most volatile names.
- Hut 8 (HUT, TSX): Ended around C$62.5, up about 5% from Monday’s close.
- IREN Limited (IREN): Changed hands in the high‑$40s, extending a run that has left the stock up roughly mid‑teens percent over the past week. [16]
- Cipher Mining (CIFR): Traded near $20, modestly higher on the session after a turbulent few weeks. [17]
Even after today’s bounce, context matters. A recent sector overview noted that Bitcoin miners dramatically outperformed BTC earlier in 2025 as the coin ripped above $120,000, only to become “among the hardest hit” during the autumn and early‑December drawdown. TechStock² Many of these names are still far below their highs from just a few months ago.
Fundamentals Behind the Tickers
Fundamentally, the big miners look stronger than they did in the last bear market — which is part of why they can move so violently now:
- Marathon (MARA): Q3 2025 revenue jumped over 90% year‑on‑year, and the company ended the quarter with more than 50,000 BTC on its balance sheet, positioning itself as both a high‑scale miner and a digital‑infrastructure provider. TechStock²
- Riot (RIOT): November updates highlighted 36.6 EH/s of hash rate, roughly 19,000 BTC in treasury, and a strategy built around ultra‑low power costs and demand‑response revenue from Texas grid programs. TechStock²
- CleanSpark (CLSK): Fiscal 2025 results showed revenue doubling to about $766 million, a swing to $364 million in net income, and more than 50 EH/s of hash rate, with a large BTC treasury and an explicit pivot into AI/HPC data‑center workloads funded in part via a $1.15 billion zero‑coupon convertible. TechStock²+1
This shift — miners branding themselves as “compute” or AI‑adjacent infrastructure companies rather than pure hash‑factories — has attracted new capital but also brought leverage and balance‑sheet risk. CleanSpark, for example, pairs that large convertible with relatively modest cash, which leaves equity holders sensitive to any extended slump in BTC or power‑market conditions. TechStock²
Under the Surface: Miners Still Under Pressure
Today’s green numbers for miners sit awkwardly alongside what on‑chain data is saying about their underlying economics.
Cointelegraph’s analysis of Bitcoin’s “Hash Ribbons” indicator, published on TradingView, flagged a fresh “buy” signal near $90,000 — historically associated with miner capitulation and long‑term accumulation opportunities. The metric is triggered when the 30‑day moving average of hashrate drops below the 60‑day average, indicating that less efficient miners are shutting down or selling more BTC to survive. [18]
The article notes that:
- Known miner wallets still hold around 1.8 million BTC, but have sold roughly 5,000 BTC since early October,
- Forced selling tends to be short‑term bearish for prices, but has historically aligned with “discount” zones that later look attractive on multi‑year charts. [19]
Combine that with CryptoNews’ observation that the crypto market cap slipped about 1.2% earlier in the day, that 86 of the top 100 tokens were lower over 24 hours, and that U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs just logged another day of net outflows, and the picture that emerges is of a sector still on edge — despite today’s bounce in the equities. [20]
Twenty One Capital: A Harsh Welcome for a New Crypto Treasury Stock
If investors were willing to give Coinbase and the miners the benefit of the doubt today, they were far less forgiving toward a brand‑new player.
Twenty One Capital (ticker: XXI) — a crypto‑treasury firm majority‑owned by Tether and Bitfinex and backed in part by SoftBank — slid nearly 20% in its first trading session after completing a SPAC merger with Cantor Equity Partners. [21]
According to Reuters, the company now holds over 43,500 BTC, making it the third‑largest corporate holder of Bitcoin globally. Yet even that sizable stash could not protect the stock from a sharp repricing as it listed into a market already wrestling with: [22]
- A Bitcoin price more than a quarter off its highs,
- Skepticism toward “digital asset treasury” firms whose valuation depends heavily on a premium to the net value of their coins (“mNAV”),
- Investor fatigue after a year of aggressive equity issuance by BTC‑heavy balance‑sheet plays.
The contrast is striking: Strategy/MicroStrategy (MSTR) and similar treasury plays have spent 2025 building enormous BTC war chests, but recent market commentary stresses that this corner of the market has also “lost ground” as ETF flows reversed and the macro backdrop turned less forgiving. TechStock²+1
Macro Drivers: Fed, ETFs and the Next Leg of the Cycle
Both crypto and crypto stocks traded today with one eye on Washington and the Fed.
- Futures markets are pricing in roughly an 87% chance that the Federal Reserve cuts its policy rate by 25 basis points tomorrow, taking the target range down to 3.5–3.75%. [23]
- CryptoNews highlights that “all eyes are on Bitcoin’s $91,000 resistance level,” which currently lines up with key moving averages and trendlines; many analysts expect BTC to oscillate around that area in the near term rather than stage a decisive breakout ahead of clearer Fed guidance. [24]
- ETF data show spot BTC products in the U.S. flipping back to net outflows, even as corporate buyers like Strategy add to their treasuries — a sign that institutional flows are still fragile. [25]
Several recent research round‑ups put it bluntly: fundamentals for many crypto companies are stronger than ever, but flows and risk appetite have shifted from tailwind to headwind. Spot ETF outflows, a shrinking stablecoin supply, and elevated options demand for downside protection all point to a market that is nervous but not yet in capitulation mode. TechStock²+1
What Today’s Close Signals for Crypto Stock Investors
Taken together, December 9’s closing tape paints a picture of a market that is:
- Selective – rewarding established platforms like Coinbase and well‑capitalized miners, while punishing newcomers such as Twenty One Capital.
- Hyper‑sensitive to Bitcoin’s range – even a relatively small bounce off intraday lows was enough to send miners up 3–7% in a single session.
- Macro‑driven – with tomorrow’s Fed decision looming, traders are clearly using crypto stocks as leveraged expressions of rate‑cut expectations and broader risk sentiment.
For longer‑term investors, several themes stand out from today’s moves and recent research: TechStock²+2TradingView+2
- Bucket your exposure. Many analysts now group crypto equities into buckets — exchanges (COIN), treasuries (MSTR/Strategy, XXI), and miners (MARA, RIOT, CLSK, HUT, IREN, CIFR). Each bucket responds differently to Bitcoin’s moves, regulation and macro shocks.
- Miners remain the highest‑beta play. With hash‑rate expansions, energy‑market risks and growing leverage from AI/HPC pivots, miners still behave like turbo‑charged BTC options rather than “steady” infrastructure stocks.
- Flows matter as much as fundamentals. Earnings, hash‑rate and BTC holdings look stronger than they did in 2022, but price action is being driven by ETF flows, on‑chain liquidity, and shifting rate expectations as much as by company‑specific news.
None of this guarantees where crypto stocks go next — especially with a Fed decision, ETF flow data and Bitcoin’s $90k–$95k range all in play over the coming days. But today’s closing bell made one thing clear: as long as Bitcoin hovers near a key inflection zone and the Fed is preparing to move, Coinbase and the miners will remain the market’s favorite levers for expressing fast, leveraged views on digital assets.
This article is for information and news purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security or cryptocurrency.
References
1. stockanalysis.com, 2. stockanalysis.com, 3. www.investopedia.com, 4. www.reuters.com, 5. www.tradingview.com, 6. www.investopedia.com, 7. cryptonews.com, 8. www.reuters.com, 9. stockanalysis.com, 10. www.tradingview.com, 11. cryptonews.com, 12. www.tradingview.com, 13. www.tradingview.com, 14. www.tradingview.com, 15. stockanalysis.com, 16. www.aol.com, 17. www.tradingview.com, 18. www.tradingview.com, 19. www.tradingview.com, 20. cryptonews.com, 21. www.reuters.com, 22. www.reuters.com, 23. www.investopedia.com, 24. cryptonews.com, 25. cryptonews.com
