- Institutional demand driven by Bitcoin ETFs will bring “new highs in 2024,” says Bernstein.
- With halving just a few months out, all eyes are on Bitcoin miners’ performance.
- The brokerage said the sector is primed to pop and picked two key mining stocks for investors to get exposure.
Buy Bitcoin — and its miners.
Or so says investment firm Bernstein in its latest investor report.
“Most of the US-listed miners look relatively well positioned,” for Bitcoin’s so-called halving event, reads the report.
Slated for April 20, the halving will see the Bitcoin network cut the rewards it doles out to miners by half.
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Miners receive rewards – today, it’s 6.25 Bitcoin – for maintaining the network and verifying transactions.
These outfits will essentially be expected to continue the same work for less reward, tightening the field and putting pressure on any inefficient miners.
The event occurs every four years, but the dynamic this time around is different writes Bernstein.
Bitcoin ‘supply crunch’
With the industry’s Bitcoin ETF era well underway, analysts expect an influx in pent-up demand to pour into the market.
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This demand will meet head-on with miners issuing – selling to fund their operations – fewer Bitcoin on the market, creating a “supply crunch.”
“This combination of growing BTC demand and miners selling less BTC, creates the unique supply crunch in the market. Except this time, the demand from the ETFs already looks strong pre-halving,” writes Bernstein.
As prices for original-blend Bitcoin soar, investors can also gain exposure to this dynamic by scooping up shares in Riot and CleanSpark.
The Bernstein analysts tip Riot to almost double and CleanSpark to gain roughly 53%.
“Riot, in particular, has been weak versus others, but with the expected capacity growth in Corsicana coming up, starting Q2, we expect better price action.”
The Corsicana facility has been pitched as the world’s largest Bitcoin mining outfit, sprawled out across 265 acres.
Authorities have approved a total capacity of one gigawatt of power, or enough energy to power 100 million LED bulbs.
Crypto market movers
- Bitcoin’s enjoying a heady rally today, jumping another 4% and rounding out its weekly performance to a whopping 10%.
- Top movers in the top 10 include Avalanche, Cardano, and Ethereum.
- The wider market has tacked on another 3.3%, bringing the entire crypto market cap to $1.8 trillion on Friday morning.
What we’re reading
Liam Kelly is DL News’ Berlin correspondent. Contact him at liam@dlnews.com.