Coinbase and Miners Rise After CFTC Approval
The CFTC gave Coinbase the green light for equity perpetual futures, while Riot, MARA, and Strategy also rode the rebound in tech and crypto stocks.
Key Takeaways
- Coinbase, Strategy, Riot Platforms, and MARA Holdings rose between 5% and 13% on Tuesday, while Bitcoin gained just 0.3% over 24 hours.
- The move followed a rebound after a recent sell-off, a pickup in tech stocks, and CFTC approval for equity perpetual futures at Coinbase.
- Riot rose the most at 13.3%; short interest in MARA and Riot had increased earlier, but short covering has not been confirmed.
Crypto stocks Coinbase, Strategy, Riot Platforms, and MARA Holdings rose between 5% and 13% on Tuesday, while Bitcoin itself gained just 0.3% over 24 hours. The move followed a two-day drop that had already pushed the four stocks down 8% to 14% earlier. For investors in these names, the swings are still much bigger than for Bitcoin itself.
Three Catalysts at Once
The rebound lined up with three developments. The stocks recovered from the recent sell-off, and tech stocks also picked up. The Nasdaq Composite rose about 1% after the index lost 3.9% in the two sessions before that.
There was also news around Coinbase, the largest U.S. crypto exchange. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission gave the green light on Tuesday for perpetual futures. These are contracts with no expiration date that track individual U.S. stocks, and Coinbase had asked through its derivatives arm to list those products.
Notably, Riot, a Bitcoin miner without a trading platform, rose the most at 13.3%. Coinbase gained 8.6%, MARA 7.6%, and Strategy 5.4% shortly before 11:00 a.m. ET.
Why These Names Move Together
The four companies are closely tied to crypto, but in different ways. Miners earn new Bitcoin by running specialized computers. Strategy buys and holds Bitcoin as the core of the business. That means their stocks often react more strongly than the coin itself to news, sentiment, and broader market moves.
Short sellers can also play a role. They borrow shares and sell them, hoping to buy them back later at a lower price. If the stock price jumps quickly, they sometimes have to buy back shares in a hurry, which can add fuel to the rally. In MARA's case, short interest in mid-October rose to 111.9 million shares, up from 100.8 million two weeks earlier. For Riot, that position rose to 53.6 million shares over the same period. Later figures have not been published yet, so it has not been confirmed whether short covering really played a role.
What Investors Are Watching Now
The approval of perpetual futures on individual U.S. stocks shows how crypto trading tools are spreading further into traditional markets. For European crypto followers, that matters because it keeps blurring the line between crypto and classic investment products. At the same time, the outcome of days like this often still depends on broader market conditions, not just one news item.
Barclays lowered its price target for Coinbase to $120 (€107) last week after trading revenue in October came in at about $165 million (€148 million). Still, Coinbase has already shown that a slow start to a quarter does not tell the whole story. The company reported about $130 million (€116 million) through July 26, while trading revenue in the third quarter eventually came in at $590 million (€528 million). Riot will report earnings before Wednesday's open, while analysts are expecting a loss of $0.32 (€0.29) per share.
Meanwhile, Coinbase is also facing broader pressure from market expectations around its revenue mix. The comparison with Robinhood's falling crypto revenue shows how sensitive trading platform income remains to swings in activity and pricing.