Bitcoin ETF inflows have surpassed expectations.
The broker is more convinced about its $150K bitcoin price target.
Bitcoin mining stocks are the best way to play the crypto market rally.
Bernstein analysts said on Monday that they were now more convinced about bitcoin (BTC) hitting $150,000 by mid-2025 after the largest digital asset rallied to reach a new all-time high this year.
The analysts also predicted that bitcoin will ‘break out’ after the next halving event, reiterating its bullish call in some of the miners despite falling share prices.
The broker repeated its $150,000 price target for the world’s largest cryptocurrency, citing booming exchange-traded fund (ETF) inflows, and said investors should buy bitcoin mining stocks to gain exposure to the coming rally.
Mining stocks were sharply lower in early trading on Monday. CleanSpark (CLSK) led the declines down 9%, Marathon Digital (MARA) slumped 6.7%, and Riot Platforms (RIOT) fell 2.5% at the time of publication.
“We believe bitcoin miners are still largely retail-traded stocks and institutions have largely stayed away from bitcoin proxies, as traditional investors remain skeptical and still approach crypto with a rear-view bias,” analysts Gautam Chhugani and Mahika Sapra wrote.
“With bitcoin climbing new highs of $71K, we expect institutional interest in bitcoin equities to finally tip over, and bitcoin miners to be the largest beneficiaries,” the analysts said, adding that the long bitcoin miners trade requires “more patience.”
The rising bitcoin price and transaction fees will provide a cushion for the miners into halving, even if production costs double post-halving, the report said. Outperform-rated Riot Platforms (RIOT) and CleanSpark (CLSK) “will clock ~70% and 60% gross margin respectively,” the analysts added.
Mining stocks have underperformed the bitcoin rally as investors are “long bitcoin and short miners.” The thinking behind the trade is that it’s safer to buy spot ETFs rather than mining stocks that are exposed to risk from the upcoming halving.
Bitcoin price was over 4% on Monday, at around $72,269 at the time of publication. The CoinDesk 20 index {{CD20}} also gained 4%.
