Bitcoin’s Rally Burns $6 Billion for Short Sellers

  • Coinbase jump accounts for more than half of losses in 2023
  • Rising prices may squeeze shorts and lead to covering: S3

Bitcoin’s more than 165% jump is driving the gains in crypto stocks, which are highly linked to the price of the digital asset. 

Photographer: Paul Yeung/Bloomberg
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Bitcoin’s blistering rally in 2023 has made betting against cryptocurrency company stocks a losing bet for short sellers.

Traders betting on declines in crypto-related companies such as Coinbase Global Inc., MicroStrategy Inc. and Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. have accumulated paper losses of $6 billion so far this year, according to data from S3 Partners LLC.