Cryptocurrency-related stocks, such as Coinbase (COIN) and Riot Blockchain (RIOT) – Get Report, on Thursday sank after Bitcoin, the world’s top digital currency, slid 6% to $32,900.
Bitcoin’s status often means that when it sneezes, the rest of the crypto world suffers a serious cold.
Coinbase recently traded at $239.52, down almost 5%; Riot Blockchain (RIOT) – Get Report at $33.05, down 6.7%; Ebang (EBON) – Get Report at $2.62, down 5.4%; Marathon Digital (MARA) – Get Report at $26.70, down 6.6%; and Bit Digital (BTBT) – Get Report at $5.26, down 5.6%.
In other cryptocurrency news Thursday, Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets research at VanEck, offered TheStreet.com an analysis of the Federal Reserve’s relationship with digital currencies.
“The Fed is in listening mode and hasn’t said much, and the rest of us will wait and see what guidance comes out,” he said.
“But the rest of the world isn’t waiting on the Fed. … The rest of the world is seeing value in the second source of monetary sovereignty that disintermediates the Fed…. We’ll see how that shakes out.”
Further, “The Federal Reserve is afraid of losing its monopoly over the manufacturing of money,” Sigel said.
“These are decentralized communities that have their own economies denominated in money that is not backed by the full faith and credit of the United States, so they are truly bottoms-up network effect economies.”
TheStreet.com’s Roland Marconi on Tuesday offered an analysis of Bitcoin mining.
“The mining or entering of Bitcoin into circulation is a complex process involving computer systems across the world that maintain the blockchain ledger, and verify transactions,” he wrote.