Proactive Investors - Crypto-linked stocks Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ:COIN), Riot Blockchain Inc (NASDAQ:RIOT) and Marathon Digital are set to open significantly lower when trading commences in New York on Friday after reports revealed that Space X dumped its entire bitcoin holding.
Coinbase, the crypto trading platform, is down close to 4.5% in pre-market trading having closed at US$79, while crypto miners Riot Platforms and Marathon Digital are down 10.6% and 9.2% respectively.
SpaceX, the spacecraft engineering group founded by Elon Musk, sold all its holdings in Bitcoin, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday evening, which in turn led to a sharp sell-off of the cryptocurrency until early Friday morning.
Although the exact quantity of Bitcoin sold remains undisclosed, financial records saw SpaceX's expenses - which also accounts for property acquisition, equipment, and R&D - total US$5.2 billion in 2022.
Space X followed in similar footsteps to Musk’s Tesla which, according to its third-quarter update, sold approximately 75% of its initial $1.5 billion investment.
Dropping to as low as the US$25,000 mark, BTC managed to slightly recover on Friday from the dip and although it is down close to 10% in the last five days it is currently trading a little under US$26,500.
In 2021, Elon Musk, formerly one of Bitcoin’s largest proponents, publicly disclosed SpaceX's ownership of the cryptocurrency, which coincided with Tesla's announcement of its plan to acquire $1.5 billion worth of the coin.
In turn, this significantly boosted Bitcoin's value to an all-time high of over $43,000.