Name: Crypto stocks split in 2025 as operators rally, balancesheet plays lag
Uploaded: 2025-12-31T03:31:27.756Z
Duration: 2 min 8 s
Description: CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos reporting on how bitcoin miners tied to AI infrastructure deals outperformed this year, while crypto-treasury names sank under dilution and financing costs.

CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos reporting on how bitcoin miners tied to AI infrastructure deals outperformed this year, while crypto-treasury names sank under dilution and financing costs.

Wall Street

In 2025, crypto stocks experienced a notable split in performance. Miners that shifted towards AI infrastructure, such as Iris Energy, Cipher Mining, and FluidStack, saw substantial gains, with some rising up to 300% year-to-date due to major technology deals. In contrast, exchanges like Coinbase and eToro declined from their yearly highs, and digital asset treasuries, including MicroStrategy and Marathon, suffered significant losses, some dropping as much as 85% from their peaks.

The divergence is attributed to differences in business models, with AI-focused miners securing long-term revenue streams independent of cryptocurrency prices, while exchanges and treasuries remained vulnerable to market sentiment and financing challenges. An upcoming MSCI decision on the classification of crypto-heavy balance sheets could further affect liquidity and passive fund exposure to these stocks.

Crypto stocks split in 2025 as operators rally, balancesheet plays lag

All right. Another market flash on strategy. Take a look at the shares this morning. We were telling you about this new milestone looking at the shares and the action we're seeing actually up about three quarters of 1 percent. So this action after closing at a 15 month low yesterday the value of the company's Bitcoin reserves hit a seven month low strategy disclosing it sold more than 650 thousand shares over the past week to raise cash to buy more Bitcoin. It sold 15 million shares this month to raise about two point seven million dollars or just about 6 percent of its market cap of forty four billion dollars. MicroStrategy is an example what's known as a crypto proxy stock or a publicly traded company whose performance is very closely tied to the performance of crypto currencies offering investors a way to get exposure to that market. Our Mackenzie Sagalos looks at how 2025 has been both the best of times and the worst of times for some of these names. Crypto stocks split into three camps this year. The winners were miners that pivoted to A.I. infrastructure. Iris Energy led the pack up almost 300 percent year to date after signing a nearly 10 billion dollar cloud deal with Microsoft. Cipher mining up more than 200 percent on the back of major contracts with Amazon A.W.S. and FluidStack had eight up around 140 percent after a seven billion dollar A.I. data center lease. These are all operating businesses with long term revenue visibility that doesn't depend on where Bitcoin trades. And then you have the exchanges Coinbase bullish and eToro all in the red from their 2025 highs. These are businesses tied to trading volumes and crypto sentiment. And finally this was the year of the rise and fall of the digital asset treasuries strategy down nearly 50 percent this year. The pure play Bitcoin miners like Marathon down 45 percent. And it's not just Bitcoin. Tom Lee's Bitmine immersion and Ethereum Treasury is down 80 percent from its summer highs. DeFi Development Corp a Solana Treasury play down 85 percent from its peak. The problem here is dilution financing costs and sentiment swings that can undermine the trade. And that matters. Heading into January MSCI is set to decide whether to reclassify crypto heavy balance sheets which could force passive funds to cut exposure. That's a real liquidity risk for the Treasury names. Back to you Frank.

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