In July, Bitcoin surpassed the $120k mark for the first time, driven by several events, including billions of dollars of institutional money flooding into BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF products, the Federal Reserve indicating rate cuts later in the year and the US Senate’s passing of the GENIUS Act, which would see stablecoins regulated.
Many people can’t be bothered with exchanges and hot and cold wallets, but there are other ways to experience the highs and lows of crypto.
Companies with large Bitcoin holdings or Bitcoin treasury companies: These companies hold significant amounts of bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset, making their stock performance directly tied to its price movements.
MicroStrategy is a software company that holds a substantial amount of bitcoin. Its stock price had a very high correlation with the cryptocurrency, around 0.96 in the last year.
Cryptocurrency mining companies: The profitability and, therefore, stock prices of these companies are highly dependent on the price of crypto, especially Bitcoin. For example, MARA Holdings, Riot Platforms, CleanSpark and Hut 8 Mining all increased between 18 percent and 31 percent within a recent 30-day period.
ETFs: Fund managers have begun offering crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with remarkable success. In 2025 so far, the Global X 21Shares Bitcoin ETF and Monochrome Bitcoin ETF have each returned nearly 78 percent in FY25. The iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF has seen a YTD price change of 21.58 percent, and the VanEck Crypto & Blockchain Innovators UCITS ETF was among the top-performing ETFs in Q2 2025.
Elsewhere, companies that use blockchain technology or provide services to the crypto industry can be influenced by Bitcoin price rises. There’s also a stronger correlation between Bitcoin and major indexes, suggesting it increasingly behaves like a “risky asset” within broader financial markets. It’s important to remember, though, that the cryptocurrency market is still highly volatile and can experience unique events that decouple its movements from traditional stock markets.