GoKawiilAn array of bitcoin mining units inside a container at a CleanSpark facility in College Park, Georgia, on April 22, 2022.
Crypto stocks were some of the top gainers Monday as the broader market sold off and capital rotated away from chip and AI infrastructure names.
Bitmine Immersion led the group, surging 11% after the ether accumulator increased its holdings of the cryptocurrency by nearly 10,000 coins worth about $19.4 million at current prices, according to a Monday update. Fellow ETH treasury firm Sharplink Gaming jumped 6%.
Bitcoin treasury pioneer Strategy was up 7% after it added to its cash buffer for a fifth straight week rather than buy bitcoin.
Coinbase Global, BitGo and Figure Technology were all up between 4% and 6%.
Stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group gained 2% after announcing it has acquired IBM's portfolio of more than 1,000 blockchain-related patents worldwide. It did not disclose details of the acquisition.
The sector-wide move came amid a sharp sell-off in oil prices, lower Treasury yields and continued risk-off approach to memory chip stocks and other, direct AI plays.
"Today's weakness partly reflects concern around capex requirements and whether companies across the miner-to-AI group may need to raise incremental capital at higher costs to fund their development pipelines," Donovan told CNBC.
Chip and AI infrastructure stocks were under pressure as concern over circular financing spread, along with intensifying competition from Chinese semiconductor companies. The resulting risk repricing accelerated capital rotation into alternative themes, including crypto, said Owen Lau, analyst at ClearStreet.
AI-exposed bitcoin miners were uniformly in the red.
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