Why Crytocurrency Stocks Were All the Rage This Week

It's not hyperbole to say that this week might go down in history as one of the best for cryptocurrency stock investors. It's sure been quite a boon for cryptocurrencies themselves, and the companies that mine and invest in them were surging across the five-day trading period, too. This wasn't only a coattail increase, either -- several had good news of their very own to report. Some even posted share price gains well into the double-digit percentages, according to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Miner Marathon Digital (MARA -0.31%) flew nearly 20% higher over the week, while Riot Platforms (RIOT 3.39%) was inundated with a serious investor bull run that left its stock valued 36% higher. Not to be outdone, well-known Bitcoin holder MicroStrategy (MSTR -0.14%) rose by 18%. Good news all around Looking at the home-cooked news first, both Marathon and Riot Platforms published updates about their operations, and the two reports were encouraging. The former company unveiled its October production figures Monday morning, leading the press release with the fact that the month was its best for Bitcoin creation since the halving of the cryptocurrency in April. All told, the company minted 717 Bitcoin, which was up by 2% from September's 705. The same day, Riot Platforms published its own operational update for the same month. The company disclosed that its Bitcoin production rose even more sharply -- hence the meatier pop in its share price compared to Marathon's. October saw it mint 505 Bitcoin, for an average of nearly 17 per day. That well eclipsed September's numbers of 412 and less than 14, respectively. It also trounced September 2023's 458 Bitcoin and sub-15 per-day average. MicroStrategy didn't have such investor-shaking news of its own to report. Still, the company benefited nicely from a new analyst take. Again on Monday, Barclays analyst Ramsey El-Assal significantly raised his price target on the stock, adding $50 per share for a new fair value assessment of $275. He maintained his overweight (i.e., buy) recommendation on MicroStrategy as he did so. Crypto advocates coming to the White House These developments would likely have pushed the prices of the three stocks (and possibly other peers) no matter what was happening outside of their bubble. However, this was also a monumental week for cryptos and related assets due to outside developments. No. 1 was the surprise victory of Donald Trump and his Bitcoin-holding running mate J.D. Vance in the presidential election. Both men have unambiguously indicated their administration would support the crypto industry, and investors are clearly taking this to heart. As a result, those investors were also eagerly buying into coins and tokens lately. There's also the Federal Reserve's (Fed) second consecutive rate cut, which occurred later in the week and gave cryptos themselves and associated assets a fresh lift. The 25-basis-point slice was less than the previous 50-basis-point reduction; nevertheless, this was cheering for crypto-heads. That's because sliding interest rates revive interest in, and demand for, relatively risky asset classes like cryptocurrencies and crypto stocks.