Stocks with crypto exposure, such as $COIN, $CLSK, or $MARA are showing three-digit growth, largely surpassing not only the overall stock market, but even Bitcoin itself.

In the last two months, Coinbase has gained 195%, the miners CleanSpark and Marathon Digital – 188% and 121%, Microstrategy 87%… all while S&P500 and Nasdaq100 both increased by only 9%. Bitcoin gained 58% in the same period.

These stocks’ particularity is that they not only reflect the underlying businesses’ performance but also allow the investors to profit from the crypto’s growth from the security of their traditional portfolios. The crypto exposure can take different forms, from trading to mining, or even simply hoarding BTC in the company’s treasury.

Here’s an overview of the 10 best-performing stocks with crypto exposure : Coinbase, Cleanspark, Marathon, Microstrategy, Iris Energy, RIOT, Block, Applied Digital, or Robinhood, all traded on Nasdaq.

1.    Coinbase ($COIN) +195%

One of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges, Coinbase was founded in the US in 2012. Nine years later, it went public, marking a stunning valuation of almost $86 billion.

Generally, $COIN has mirrored the crypto market, crashing 88% in 2022. However, it managed to outperform both Bitcoin and Ethereum in its recovery: + 345% vs BTC’s +158% and ETH’s +140% from their respective lowest points in 2022. It now boasts a $35 billion market cap.

The company still faces the SEC lawsuit for offering “unregistered securities”, but the community believes that its chances to emerge victorious are quite high. Coinbase diversification strategy that we spoke about earlier seems to be paying off, as well as its efforts to try and mobilize the American society to stand up for crypto.

2.    CleanSpark Inc ($CLSK) +188%

CleanSpark ($1.9 billion market cap), also known as America’s Bitcoin Miner, owns and operates data centers (mostly) in the state of Georgia, which prioritize low-carbon power. The company registered an 84% increase in BTC production compared to the previous year, which, despite its net loss of $168 million, helped its stock spike to a stunning +188%.

3.    Marathon Digital ($MARA) +121%

The US-based Marathon Digital is the biggest Bitcoin miner with a $3.7 billion market cap, 9 facilities, and a fleet of over 105,000 machines.

The company is making efforts to increase its sustainable practices, recently launching a project in Utah powered by landfill methane gas, and a mining farm in Paraguay powered by hydro energy.

4.    Microstrategy ($MSTR) +87%

MicroStrategy is a US-based business intelligence company with a $8.2 billion market cap. It earns its place on this list due to the unwavering faith of its founder, Michael Saylor, in Bitcoin. Since 2021, the company has consistently added Bitcoin to its treasury, accumulating an impressive 158,245 BTC, equivalent to almost $7 billion.

The magnitude of MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin holdings has transformed its stocks into a de facto proxy for investors seeking exposure to BTC, yet who, for various reasons, may not be prepared to directly purchase it.

5.    Iris Energy ($IREN) +79%

A relatively small Australian miner with a 390 million market cap, Iris Energy operates data centers powered by 100% renewable energy. It operates 3 facilities in British Columbia powered by hydro energy, and one in Texas, powered by solar and wind energy. This summer, the company announced its intention to also host HPC (high-performance computing), needed for AI computations.

6.    Riot Platforms ($RIOT) +70%

One of the leading miners, Riot owns and operates two large-scale Bitcoin mining facilities in Texas.  as measured by developed capacity. The company, which already boasts a $3.3 bn market cap, appears to be set on developing its operations, buying last week additional mining rigs for $291 million.

7.    Block ($SQ) +60%

Initially named Square (hence the SG ticker), Block was founded in 2009 by Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter. The company has since diversified, adding to its portfolio CashApp, a P2P transaction and savings service with Bitcoin exposure, Afterpay, a financial service, Tidal, a music streaming service, and Weebly, a web hosting provider. Its market cap currently stands at $42 billion.

Jack Dorsey is known as a fierce Bitcoin maximalist, and Block’s current activities also include developing TBD, DeFi services on Bitcoin, a Lightning Network development kit, and working on a user-friendly miner.

8.    Applied Digital ($APLD) +35%

Formerly known as Applied Blockchain, this Texas-based data center operator started by lending out mining capacities. In 2022, it also diversified to providing AI cloud services, bringing its market cap to 700 million. With new data centers in North Dakota and Utah, the company is developing both the mining and the AI cloud operations.

9.    Robinhood ($HOOD) +28%

This American user-friendly stock trading platform started supporting crypto operations in 2018. It has since become a popular place to trade and transfer crypto through brokerage accounts, and reached a $10.1 billion market cap.

Robinhood’s stock was underperforming in November, but after the famous crypto asset manager ARK Investment offloaded $5.3 million of $COIN to buy $1.2 million of $HOOD, the stocks have rapidly surged.

10.    Hut 8 ($HUT) +14%

Hut8 is a Canadian Bitcoin mining company with a $1.2 billion market cap, which leverages renewable energy, operating two Bitcoin mining farms in Southern Alberta and five data centers capable of HPC (used for AI) across British Columbia.

This year’s results have been rather disappointing, due to a higher network difficulty and operational issues on one of its sites. However, as the merger with US Bitcoin Corp, a US-based miner, was approved, the shares have started to rise.