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Prepare for a Likely Year-End Rally With Top 5 Crypto Stocks

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The cryptocurrency space has regained momentum in November buoyed by several positives. Recently, this space has been ripe with speculation that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is set to approve a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). Once again, the news raised investors’ optimism. A plethora of recent crypto industry legal victories is likely spurring investor confidence.

The expected approval of a Bitcoin ETF by the SEC is likely to boost demand by providing traditional investors with a pathway to access Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies through regular stock markets.

The largest thrust for the crypto space has come from institutional investors. BlackRock Inc.’s (BLK) decision to launch a Bitcoin ETF and the decision of The Charles Schwab Corp. (SCHW)-led consortium to create a new crypto exchange called EDX Markets, have attracted several investors toward cryptocurrencies.

The latest addition to this league is PayPal Holdings Inc. (PYPL), which has become the first major U.S. fintech company to offer its own crypto token with a dollar-pegged stablecoin known as PayPal USD.

PayPal USD is designed to contribute to the opportunity that stablecoins offer for payments and is 100% backed by U.S. dollar deposits, short-term U.S. Treasuries and similar cash equivalents. PayPal USD is redeemable 1:1 for U.S. dollars and is issued by Paxos Trust Company.

Moreover, the next Bitcoin Halving will occur in the first half of 2024. When a halving occurs, the reward for mining new blocks is halved, making it more challenging for miners to earn net Bitcoins. Historically, this event has led to increased scarcity and has driven up the value of Bitcoin due to reduced supply.

As a result, prices of major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Cardano (ADA), Dogecoin (DOGE) and BNB (BNB) are expected to remain buoyant for the rest of 2023.

Our Top Picks

We have narrowed our search to five crypto-centric stocks with strong potential for the rest of 2023. Each of our picks carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Coinbase Global Inc. (COIN - Free Report) provides financial infrastructure and technology for the crypto economy in the United States and internationally. COIN offers the primary financial account in the crypto space for consumers, a marketplace with a pool of liquidity for transacting in crypto assets for institutions; and technology and services that enable developers to build crypto-based applications and securely accept crypto assets as payment.

Coinbase Global has an expected earnings growth rate of 91.7% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 44% over the last 30 days.

Block Inc. (SQ - Free Report) is an online digital and mobile payment platform for consumers and merchants and is the parent company of Square and Cash App. The users of Cash App can buy, sell, send and receive Bitcoin. In addition, SQ’s decentralized tbd platform allows developers to build decentralized finance applications to run on programmable blockchains. SQ is also one of the largest Bitcoin investors.

Block has an expected earnings growth rate of 88% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 15.3% over the last 30 days.

Interactive Brokers Group Inc. (IBKR - Free Report) is a global automated electronic broker. IBKR executes, processes and trades in cryptocurrencies. IBKR’s commodities futures trading desk also offers customers a chance to trade cryptocurrency futures.

Interactive Brokers Group has an expected earnings growth rate of 41.7% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 1.1% over the last 30 days.

CME Group Inc.’s (CME - Free Report) options give the buyer of the call/put the right to buy/sell cryptocurrency futures contracts at a specific price at some future date. CME offers bitcoin and ether options based on the exchange's cash-settled standard and micro BTC and ETH futures contracts.

CME Group has an expected earnings growth rate of 14.7% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved 0.6% over the last 30 days.

Hut 8 Mining Corp. (HUT - Free Report) has recently merged with US Bitcoin Corp to increase its total hash rate substantially. HUT aims to increase its total hash rate to 9.8 EH/s.

Hut 8 Mining has an expected earnings growth rate of more than 100% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has improved more than 100% over the last 30 days.

The chart below showsthe price performanced of our five picks in the past month.

Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

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