Best Cryptocurrency Stocks In Q2 2024

Much of the attention on Wall Street is currently surrounding the staggering return of crypto, perhaps more so the return of Bitcoin (BTC), which has seen prices improve nearly 40% since the turn of the year, and more than doubled in price compared to 12 months ago.

Crypto is taking on a new name for itself on the stock market, and the recent approval of eleven spot BTC ETFs by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has only further solidified the promising rise of cryptocurrencies and those companies that support them.

For investors, the rally has only just begun, and the second quarter of the year is looking to bring new opportunities for those who are willing to act now and hold their stocks for the long term.

Building a steady portfolio that is partially supported by crypto stocks and other digital assets requires the right set of insight and knowledge to know which of these stocks are winners, and which are better left untouched.

Here’s a look at the crypto stocks investors on Wall Street are banking on in the second quarter, and hopefully keeping for the long run. Please note this article is not a recommendation, and I am not a financial advisor, see the end for a longer disclaimer.

Block

The mobile payments company, Block (NYSE: SQ), formerly known as Square is banking heavily on the potential of cryptocurrency, investing in new-generation technology, and has recently developed a full Bitcoin mining system.

CEO of Block, Jack Dorsey had recently announced in a post that the company has completed the development of a native standalone three-nanometer Bitcoin mining chip, according to an article published by CNBC.

The next step in their process is sourcing a suitable chip manufacturer, which according to Dorsey in CNBC, the company has already started working with a “leading global semiconductor foundry.

The company is taking an ambitious step, designing and developing a BTC mining rig that will further democratize access to BTC mining, perhaps further create new Bitcoins, and solve sophisticated computational problems, according to the project's mission statement.

During the company’s quarterly financial earnings call in February 2024, management made it clear that the company continues to operate below their 12,000 employee headcount cap, prioritizing impactful work that will continue to provide them with the growth they require in an increasingly competitive market space.

Q4 2023 financial earnings were seen improving compared to the previous quarter. The company reported a 22% improvement in quarterly gross profit year over year which grew to $2.03 billion. On a segment basis, Square generated $828 million, up 18% year over year, and Cash App generated $1.18 billion, marking an improvement of  25% year over year. In total, the company managed to hold down positive growth for 2023, with total gross profit hitting $7.50 billion, translating to a 25% year-over-year improvement.

Over on the stock market SQ price performance remains stable, seeing a sharp climb halfway through March, with prices peaking at $85.72 per share. Shortly afterwards, prices started sliding downwards, peaking again at $84.58 per share, before taking a continuous decline and hitting $72.79 as of April 26.

Despite the high fluctuation in stock performance, Wall Street is betting on the company’s upcoming earnings announcement, with analysts expecting Block to post quarterly earnings of $0.62 per share which, if this is the case, could represent a 55% year-over-year improvement. Similarly, revenues are expected to be $5.73 billion, growing nearly 15% from the same quarter a year ago.

Despite the announcement of the company’s native Bitcoin 3-nm chip, stock prices remain largely unchanged, seeing a slight 5.03% improvement in market performance following the post made by Jack Dorsey on social media. However, looking ahead, Block is quickly ramping up its crypto arsenal, investing heavily in the long-term potential of digital currencies and taking advantage of an increasingly democratized mining and trading market.

Coinbase

Any list of crypto-based stocks won’t be completed without mentioning Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN). Unusual market-related activity has recently seen Coinbase receive some much-needed media attention following the company’s less-than-excited performance on the stock market only days before the Bitcoin halving event.

On April 25, FXStreet reported that a total of $1.3 billion of USD coins (USDC = $1.00) were transferred from apparent whale addresses into the crypto exchange. The mammoth transaction led to some analysts potentially signalling a “Strong Buy” for BTC and Ethereum (ETH).

Some experts have called this activity a giant buy signal for cryptocurrencies, however, Bitcoin prices remain 10% below their previous peak of $71,618.30, and ETH is down 22.54% compared to its peak of $4,066.21 recorded on March 11.

However, something investors should rather be keeping a close eye on at the moment is the company’s second-largest business segment which has been quietly bubbling under the surface throughout the last several months.

Coinbase co-created USD Coin, a stablecoin that is pegged to the U.S. dollar, and in recent months performance of USDC has remained quite steady considering the broader indication of the crypto market.

Fortunately for Coinbase and investors, the company generates an attractive revenue stream from stablecoins, generating more than $700 million in stablecoin revenue last year, and making up 24% of the company’s total revenue.

There has been ongoing interest in stablecoins throughout the last several months, and with the stablecoin seeing a resurgence in investor interest last year helping bolster the total market cap by more than 36% near the end of 2023.

The recent Bitcoin halving helped COIN stocks surge nearly 7% in single-day trading, moving from just over $211 per share to more than $224 per share. Afterwards, COIN climbed another 5.54% in the days following the halving, before beginning to slide, ending the final full week of April at $223.61 per share.

On the longer scale, things are looking positive, COIN stocks have improved more than 45% since the turn of the year, and are up by 314% in the last 12 months. With the company expected to report yet another successful quarter in the coming weeks, it’s perhaps becoming increasingly clear that COIN is getting itself ready for the long run as it holds its hands in all the right baskets.

Paypal Holdings

Patience is key when it comes to PayPal Holdings (NASDAQ: PYPL). The company has been slow to rebound following the post-pandemic bull run on fintech stocks, with shares seeing a slight growth streak of 4.30% since the turn of the year.

Despite the lack of surging growth, PYPL sits with a valuation of 17 times earnings and holds a 45% market share, and the company is rapidly looking to continue expanding in new service areas, including among the small-medium enterprise market segment which could provide significant upside potential in the months ahead.

The company’s focus has largely shifted from individual peer-to-peer transactions and is now in the development phase of increasing engagement among customers via the use of artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics, and machine learning (ML).

As part of its transition, PayPal is leveraging B2B and B2C customer markets through the introduction of its PayPal Rewards and PayPal Cashback Mastercard programs.

Additionally, the company recently led a $19 million Series A extension for the B2B credit card platform, Pliant. In total, Pliant raised more than $50 million in Series A funding, with PayPal looking to leverage this opportunity to tap into both the British and European markets more efficiently.

Moreover, last year PayPal became the first global payments firm to launch a stablecoin, PAYUSD, which it plans to generate revenue from product usage and payment transactions. In a Bloomberg report, company senior vice president Jose Fernandez da Ponte said that PayPal will generate interest income from assets backing their stablecoin, including dollar deposits and short-term Treasuries.

There is still fairly limited data available to conclude whether PAYUSD could hold its position among other stablecoin competitors. By January this year, the stablecoin was ranked ninth and had a total market capitalization of $300 million.

Looking at the company’s financials shows that although stablecoin performance remains uneventful, overall performance has been picking up, with Q3 2023 revenue of $8.03 billion, increasing by 8.71% year over year. Total net income of $1.40 billion was marked by a 52.23% year-over-year improvement, while total payment volumes for Q3 grew by 15%.

On the stock market, PYPL remains relatively stable, with a year-to-date improvement of 4.30%. Prices have managed to make a strong comeback following a sharp decline of 11.24% during the first trading week of February.

With the company expecting to announce fourth-quarter financial earnings in the coming weeks, Wall Street analysts are hopeful that PayPal could deliver another surprise earnings per share. During Q3 the company produced earnings of $1.48 per share, above the estimate of $1.36 per share. During Q2 the company posted earnings of $1.30 per share, while expecting to deliver $1.22 per share, reporting a surprise of 6.56%.

Combined with the company’s relatively positive performance in recent months, and holding an earnings per share of +3.78% the second quarter could be a key turning point for the company and shareholders.

Visa

All is looking good with the global payment giant Visa (NYSE: V) as the company recently reported strong second-quarter results, helping bolster Wall Street investors' sentiment regarding the potential threats of a slowing economy and slower consumer spending.

Across most segments, Visa witnessed better-than-expected performance, with key markets in the U.S. and Europe seeing strong post-pandemic recovery. Activity in most consumer segments remains strong, including travel and dining out which had seen slower performance in recent months following higher-than-expected inflation and supply chain constraints.

Recovery looks eminent, and Visa’s strong Q2 has helped share performance climb by 2.7% following the announcement. Stocks are already up by 6.30% since the turn of the year and continue to hold steady against a seemingly turbulent economic backdrop.

The positive turnaround of Visa is perhaps what investors are looking for around this time of the year with the summer season typically witnessing stronger travel volumes, both for domestic and international vacations. Additionally, consumer spending across low and high-end segments could further bolster the payment giants' Q3 even further should this trend continue to hold its weight in the coming months.

While payments and transactions make up the largest portion of their business strategy, Visa announced in February 2024 its partnership with the web 3.0 infrastructure provider, Transak, to develop and bypass centralized exchanges. This will help the company introduce cryptocurrency to fiat withdrawals under one umbrella, and help users access such services directly within their wallets.

However, this isn’t anything new for the company, as Visa had started its involvement in crypto back in 2020 already. Back then, the company partnered with the blockchain firm, Circle, which it used to support the USDC stablecoin on dedicated Visa cards.

Between then and now, Visa further expanded its crypto services in September 2023, introducing support for USDC payments on the Solana blockchain.

The newest instalment with Transak would allow users across 145 countries to withdraw nearly 40 different cryptocurrencies and pay at over 130 million merchant locations on Visa’s network.

This approach would make sense, especially in the case of Visa which currently holds a majority claim of the U.S. credit card market, with just over 62%, compared to Mastercard’s 25.7% U.S. credit card market share. More than this, Visa processed over 212 billion transactions via its network last year, and adding crypto into the mix could help it generate another stream of revenue within an industry that’s rapidly expanding.

MicroStrategy

2024 is set to be a banner year for technology company MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) which is often viewed by analysts and investors as a Bitcoin hedge fund. Nonetheless, new rules are changing the game, and this is playing in favor of MicroStrategy, which now has a stock market capitalization of more than nearly half of the companies in the S&P 500 index, according to Bloomberg,

There’s a lot happening in the technology and crypto space at the moment, and MicroStrategy has carefully positioned itself to leverage these new developments at a time when cryptos are roaring back on the stock market.

For starters, MicroStrategy is set to opt for early adoption of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB) new rules. Under their guidance, ASU 2023-08 standards will help MicroStrategy gain an exceptional stake in the market, and could potentially see stock prices surge by more than $300 per share.

What does the new standards matter? Well, with ASU 2023-08, companies will be required to present their crypto asset separately from related intangible assets on their balance sheet, something which MicroStrategy has plenty of.

As of April 2024, MicroStrategy owned a robust 214,246 BTC following an aggressive BTC buying campaign that the company has embarked on since the beginning of the year. To date, the company owns roughly 1% of all BTC that will ever exist.

The new ruling by FASB could mean that MicroStrategy will have the option to present their crypto assets on the face value of their balance sheets based on a disaggregated basis. Depending on which way the company decides to play it, they are sure to win either way.

Already MSTR has rallied by 50% since the announcement by the company’s former CEO Michael Saylor. In total, on a year-to-date basis, MSTR is up by 81%, and 314% during the last 12 months.

MicroStrategy has found a winning formula, and it’s looking to work in their favor. With crypto prices making a strong comeback, and BTC already peaking above its previous price record, perhaps it's possible for MSTR to become a juggernaut on the stock market and steadily begin to overshadow some of Wall Street’s most beloved tech and finance stocks in 2024.

Finishing Thoughts

The crypto space is ever-changing, and following several years of slow and underwhelming performance, this could become yet another banner year for crypto and those companies that are invested in the long-term upside potential.

While it’s a risky strategy to follow, considering the volatility of crypto and investors' hot and cold relationship with digital assets, looking for companies that are invested in more than just crypto could help stabilize conditions should the market tumble again later this year.

Another quarter of excitement awaits, yet this time, investing in the crypto market is becoming more of a game of cat and mouse, as tech and finance giants are chasing after crypto development, with investors following right on their heels, hoping to jump on the wagon before it’s too late.

Disclosure and disclaimer: No positions in any securities mentioned. Jacob Wolinsky is not a registered or licensed investment advisor in any jurisdiction.

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