-- Crypto curious stock investors are taking little comfort in the rebound in the shares of companies linked to the digital-asset world in the past week, with the sector underperforming just about every other risky corner of the financial markets this year by a wide margin.
As the second-quarter winds down, cryptocurrency-related stocks are being lumped in with the digital tokens as one of the world’s riskiest asset classes. The NYSE FactSet Global Blockchain Technologies Index has fallen 65 per cent this year, underperforming not only bitcoin, but also an index that tracks highly volatile so-called meme stocks as well as a gauge of special purpose acquisition vehicle names.
The selloff in crypto names, which started in early November after bitcoin hit an all-time high of almost $69,000, has accelerated this year as investors globally began to rotate out of riskier assets classes amid fears that a batch of aggressive rate hikes by the Federal Reserve aimed at cooling inflation would plunge the US economy into a recession.
Coinbase, which has lost more than $60 billion in value since hitting a record high in November, currently has 20 buy recommendations, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s the exact same number it had back in early January, when the stock was worth more than triple its current value.
To be sure, the largely positive long-term outlook for the cryptocurrency market doesn’t come without caveats.