Bitcoin is rising ahead of this month's halving
Crypto-related stocks are once again on the rise, after Bitcoin (BTC) added roughly 6% over the weekend. This comes ahead of Bitcoin's 'halving' event, which has preceded positive price action in the past. Occurring sometime this April, halving refers to reducing the reward for mining new bitcoin by 50% in order to manage the supply and maintain the cryptocurrency's scarcity.
Both Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ:COIN) and MicroStrategy Inc (NASDAQ:MSTR) are surging in turn. COIN also received a price-target hike from Barclays to $179 from $146, which is still a discount to current levels. At last glance, Coinbase stock was up 6.8% at $257.32, earlier as high as $261.63. Creeping back up toward its March 25 two-year high of $283.48, COIN is up 47.8% since the start of the year.
MicroStrategy stock was last seen up 4.5% at $1,504, earlier hitting a peak of $1,623.78. The stock has slipped since its March 27 record high of $1,999.99, though support appears to be moving in above the $1,400 level. Year to date, the security is up 138%. It's also worth noting that MSTR has landed on short sell restricted (SSR) list today amid the volatility.
Both stocks have seen much higher call volume than usual in the last 10 weeks. At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), COIN's 50-day call/put volume ratio of 1.62 ranks higher than all other readings from the past year, while MSTR's of 1.35 sits higher than 99% of readings.