- NASDAQ:RIOT dropped 15.36% on Wednesday as growth stocks were hit hard once again.
- Noted short seller Citron Research dismantles Riot in a scathing report.
- Crypto miner stocks took a hit as Coinbase makes its Wall Street debut.
NASDAQ:RIOT has had an incredible run as a sympathy play to the surging price of Bitcoin and Ethereum, and has returned over 5,000% to investors over the past 52-weeks. On Wednesday, the wheels started to fall off as Riot fell by over 15% to close the choppy trading session at $50.16. The drop took Riot back below its 50-day moving average as the stock is now 36% off of its 52-week high price of $79.50 set in late February.
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Despite announcing that it would no longer be writing short reports, noted short seller Citron Research was back at it with a scathing assessment of Riot’s business. Citron tweeted that Riot was better off buying Bitcoin rather than mining it, after the company has repeatedly raised capital to deploy into its mining infrastructure during the past year. By Citron’s calculations, purchasing actual Bitcoin would have given Riot 26 times more Bitcoin than the amount they have mined, and that investors looking to get into cryptos should just buy Bitcoin itself rather than buying shares of Riot. Citron ended the attack with a $2 price target for Riot, although the stock actually went up following the report which may show that after the Reddit short squeeze, Citron may not have the influence it once had.
RIOT Stock news
Riot wasn’t the only stock getting hit hard on Wednesday following the debut of crypto exchange Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN). Marathon Digital Holdings (NASDAQ:MARA) was down 15.75%, Bitcoin miner maker Canaan (NASDAQ:CAN) was down 7.12% and noted Bitcoin holder MicroStrategy Incorporated (NASDAQ:MSTR) was down 13.32%. Even fintech giant Square (NYSE:SQ) who has notable influence on Bitcoin via its Cash App fell 5.43% as investors booked gains from these stocks to put towards buying Coinbase shares.
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