Stocks

Crypto-linked stocks led by MicroStrategy (MSTR) surged in pre-market trading on March 4, 2026, as Bitcoin (BTC) reclaimed the $71,000 mark. With msx.com reporting strong decentralized RWA trading volume and MSTR expanding its holdings to 720,737 BTC, the sector is showing renewed resilience despite recent geopolitical volatility. Discover the key drivers behind today’s crypto-equity rally.

In a Q4 2025 portfolio update, Harvard's $57 billion endowment reportedly sold around $72 million of its Bitcoin ETF holdings and opened an $86.8 million position in the iShares Ethereum Trust. The shift lifts combined BTC and ETH ETF exposure to $352.6 million and comes as Bitcoin trades near $69,300 and Ethereum hovers just above $2,000 after recent volatility.

During the latest trading session, South Korea's KOSPI index tumbled by more than 12% after already losing 7% the previous day, marking its steepest downturn since 2008. Trading in both KOSPI and Kosdaq was briefly halted by circuit breakers as investors reacted to war-related tensions in Iran and the Middle East, profit-taking, and concerns over the high energy costs of AI data centers. Global equity indices in Japan and the United States also faced volatility, while crypto markets stayed relatively flat, with Bitcoin edging up 0.6% and total market capitalization hovering around $2.3 trillion.

On Wednesday, South Korea's Kospi and Kosdaq indexes each sank more than 10% in morning trading, forcing the Korean Stock Exchange to trigger circuit breakers and halt trading. Regional equity markets across Japan, Hong Kong, China and Thailand also dropped sharply, while surging oil prices and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East added to investor risk aversion. Crypto markets have fallen this year but showed a milder intraday reaction compared with global stocks.

On Tuesday, Ark Invest led by Cathie Wood purchased about $4.09 million in Coinbase shares and roughly $12.06 million in Robinhood shares through its ETFs. The trades came as both COIN and HOOD declined alongside broader U.S. equity indices amid heightened geopolitical tensions.

At the Bitcoin Investor Week Conference in New York in February, former Trump crypto advisor David Bailey argued that the U.S. government must go further than simply supporting Bitcoin in words. He highlighted that, despite Trump signing an executive order for a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve in March 2025 and the U.S. holding 378,372 BTC worth about $22.48 billion, meaningful policy action has lagged. Bailey added that Bitcoin will ultimately succeed with or without U.S. help, but real progress requires political capital and broader voter ownership of BTC.

As of March 4, 2026, U.S. lawmakers remain divided over whether stablecoin issuers and crypto platforms may provide yield-style incentives to users, leaving the CLARITY Act stuck in the Senate after a strong bipartisan vote in the House. Representative French Hill is urging senators to accept the House-approved language, while traders on platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket are still assigning notable odds that the bill will be enacted in 2026.

Bitcoin maintained support near $68,000 on Tuesday while the US Dollar Index climbed from 96.6 to 99.4 over the past three weeks and gold slid 3.6%. At the same time, Bitcoin’s 30-day correlation with the Nasdaq 100 fell from 92% to 69%, and ETFs recorded $1.5 billion of net inflows since Feb. 24, highlighting resilient institutional demand despite a broader bear market.

On March 3, 2026, Abu Dhabi's Financial Services Regulatory Authority approved nine Ondo Finance tokenized equities and the Invesco QQQ ETF for trading on Binance's Multilateral Trading Facility, restricted to non-U.S. investors. The products are structured as equity-linked notes tied to underlying stocks such as Apple, Amazon, Nvidia, Tesla, Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, and Circle, with Ondo reporting over $11 billion in cumulative trading volume and more than $600 million in total value locked.

MARA Holdings reported in its latest 10-K that it began selling Bitcoin in the second half of 2025 and plans to continue monetizing BTC in 2026 to improve financial flexibility. The miner holds a treasury of 53,822 BTC, part of which is used for passive income, and may sell additional coins depending on market conditions and capital priorities.