Bitcoin’s been around for 16 years — and Ether recently celebrated its 10th anniversary — but for many investors on Wall Street and beyond, dabbling in crypto remains too risky a proposition. Regulation, taxes and security concerns are just a few of the reasons why.
Because of this, some traders have been adding crypto stocks to their portfolios instead — helped along by a few initial public offerings in recent months. This provides indirect exposure to the space, as the share price of these companies tends to rise in tandem with bull runs.
BTC prices have jumped by 18% in the year to date, while ETH has outperformed handsomely with a 35% gain. How are crypto stocks faring in comparison? We’ve been crunching the numbers to find out.
Coinbase
COIN has pretty much matched BTC so far in 2025. That’s despite a substantial drop in net income and revenues in its most recent results.
As executives have admitted themselves, the exchange’s financial performance can vary hugely from quarter to quarter. Fewer trades tend to happen when top coins are trading sideways — starving the business of transaction fees as a result.
That being said, expect magic when Q3 results emerge at the start of October. This will cover the period when both BTC and ETH surged to record highs.
Its newfound presence in the S&P 500 now means it’s a part of portfolios for millions of investors who gain exposure to this index through ETFs.
Circle
One of the biggest success stories from the recent spate of IPOs has been Circle, the company that issues the USDC stablecoin. Shares were initially priced at $31 back in June — and then jumped to $69 at the open.
It jumped to an all-time high of $298.99 that same month, a staggering gain of 865% that even some meme coins struggle to match. Things have cooled down since then — but its current price of $126.55 means the stock is still outperforming top coins.
Circle released financial results for the first time earlier this month, with revenue surging by a healthy 53%.
Bullish
Another box office IPO came in the form of Bullish. Shares had been priced at $37 here — still above the $32 to $33 range initially touted — but opened at $90 and rallied hard to $118 intraday.
As well as running a crypto exchange, the brand owns CoinDesk. Prices have actually halved since hitting this 52-week high,
Backed by Peter Thiel, the strong performance on debut shows that there’s an insatiable appetite for crypto companies among Wall Street investors, especially against a backdrop of relaxed regulation in the U.S.
Strategy
Of course, when many people think of crypto stocks, it’s Strategy that springs to mind.
Formerly known as MicroStrategy, it initially went public all the way back in 1998 as a business intelligence firm, but started to acquire Bitcoin under Michael Saylor in August 2020.
And as strategies go, it’s a winning one. MSTR has rallied beyond the all-time high first seen during the dot-com boom, and comfortably so.
It’s risen by a staggering 2,291% over the past five years — face-melting returns when compared with BTC’s 868% gain over the same period.
And when zooming in on the year to date, both assets have risen by a comparable 17% or 18%.
One thing worth mentioning here is that Strategy has cooled substantially from a recent 52-week high of $543.
Block and MARA Holdings
Alas, not all stocks have managed to keep up with Bitcoin’s tearaway gains in recent months.
Block, Inc. — a payments provider launched by Twitter’s founder Jack Dorsey — has actually tumbled by 9.2% since 2025 began. That’s despite the fact it was one of the first firms to add Bitcoin to its books, with 8,692 BTC in reserve.
It’s also been a challenging few months of trading for MARA Holdings, which is currently the second-biggest corporate holder of Bitcoin, with 50,639 BTC in its warchest. It’s dipped by 8% so far this year, and is well-off the record highs beyond $75 that were recorded back in 2021.
Just some of the other big brands considering initial public offerings now include the likes of OKX, TRON, Gemini and Kraken — bringing the worlds of crypto and traditional finance ever closer together.
The post Revealed: The Crypto Stocks Outperforming Bitcoin appeared first on Cryptonews.
