Why Are Crypto Mining Stocks MARA, RIOT, BTBT, BITF Up Today?

Crypto mining stocks, specifically Bitcoin (BTC-USD) mining stocks, are up today. Marathon Digital (NASDAQ:MARA), Riot Platforms (NASDAQ:RIOT), Bit Digital (NASDAQ:BTBT) and Bitfarms (NASDAQ:BITF) all rose over 10% on June 20 as major institutions moved back into crypto trading.

Bitcoin prices also rose on a short squeeze, and the industry awaited testimony from Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell.

Early this morning, June 21, Bitcoin was trading at over $29,000, near April’s 2023 high of over $30,000.

The Bitcoin miners are recovering from a terrible 2022. Bitfarms is now up 3% over the last year after rising over 200% since January.

Blackrocking Bitcoin

Bitcoin speculators are excited about Blackrock (NYSE:BLK) announcing it will launch a Bitcoin ETF. The announcement came one week after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Binance and Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN), for which Blackrock acts as a coin custodian, on charges of selling unregistered securities.

The market is also buoyed by the launch of EDX Markets, an exchange trading four leading crypto coins – Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH-USD), LiteCoin (LTC-USD) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH-USD). The new exchange is backed by Charles Schwab (NASDAQ:SCHW), Fidelity and Citadel.

EDX hopes to avoid the SEC’s wrath by only trading coins rather than holding them as the firms sued by the SEC do. The idea is that this lets EDX serve big institutions that want crypto exposure but worry about centralized crypto service providers.

Before the announcements, Bitcoin prices had been in a narrow trading range, bottoming below $25,000. The industry hopes the moves offset those of the SEC, which considers most crypto coins to be unregistered securities. The moves also show faith in the underlying blockchain technology, aimed at cutting the cost of moving asset values.

Crypto Mining Stocks: What Happens Next?

While prices of the coins covered by EDX are spiking, those of secondary coins are not. There may be a clear separation coming between market leaders and market laggards in the crypto space.

As of this writing, Dana Blankenhorn had a LONG position in SCHW. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.