We recently compiled a list of the 10 Worst Performing Crypto Stocks to Buy Now. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) stands against the other crypto stocks.
The enthusiasm surrounding the crypto market that followed Donald Trump’s return to the White House is starting to fade. David Hollerith, a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance, noted that Bitcoin hit a three-month low on February 25, briefly dropping below $87,000. This was the biggest drop in three weeks for the largest cryptocurrency in the world. On February 25, Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, fell 10% while Solana fell more than 12% to hit its lowest point in five months.
The recent sell-off in cryptocurrencies isn’t attributed to any single cause but industry watchers are pointing to a combination of negative factors contributing to the downturn. These include broader economic uncertainty, concerns about Trump tariffs, and the recent hack of the Bybit crypto exchange. Despite initial optimism about a pro-crypto stance from the Trump administration, it appears that the market rally that followed his election is losing momentum.
READ ALSO: 13 Best Performing Bank Stocks So Far In 2025 and 10 Unrivaled Stocks of the Next 5 Years.
Noelle Acheson, founder of Crypto Is Macro Now, told Yahoo Finance that the “Trump rally” could just be running out of steam. She believes that the pullback is happening because of concerns about economic growth as the new administration announces new tariffs and tax cuts. Crypto-related stocks have also been negatively affected by the downturn.
Bernstein’s analyst Gautam Chhugani told clients in a note that the Bitcoin market is closely tied to broader equity market sentiment driven by macroeconomic concerns. Bernstein believes that Bitcoin has not reached its peak in its current 4-year cycle and projects it could reach closer to $200,000 over the next 12 months. On a technical level, Chhugani thinks Bitcoin could drop as low as $70,000. However, Bernstein sees this potential drop could be an opportunity for investors to join the cycle, suggesting that any decline could be a buying opportunity.
Bitcoin’s price could bounce back if it gets more bullish announcements from the White House. President Trump has fulfilled some of the promises he made to the crypto industry, but other promises and regulatory developments are taking longer. While Bitcoin has fallen 6% since the start of 2025, it is still up 26% since Trump’s election victory.
Methodology
To compile our list of the 10 worst-performing crypto stocks to buy now, we looked for the largest crypto companies. We reviewed financial media reports, ETFs, our own rankings, and various online resources to compile a list of crypto stocks. To look for the worst-performing stocks, we looked for crypto stocks that have experienced negative returns year-to-date as of February 21, 2025. Next, we focused on the top 10 stocks most favored by institutional investors. Data for the hedge fund sentiment surrounding each stock was taken from Insider Monkey’s Q4 2024 database of more than 1,000 elite hedge funds. Finally, the 10 worst-performing crypto stocks to buy according to hedge funds were ranked in ascending order based on the number of hedge funds holding stakes in them as of Q4 2024.
Why do we care about what hedge funds do? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN)
Year-to-Date Performance: -8.49%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 68
Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) is an American company that operates an online platform for buying, selling, transferring, and storing cryptocurrency. The company serves customers in over 100 countries. COIN is one of the worst-performing crypto stocks to buy now. On February 19, Compass Point analyst Chase White raised the price target for Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) to $365 from $295 while maintaining a “Buy” rating. This increase in price target followed the company’s financial results, which outperformed market expectations as the company reported sales of $2.2 billion and EBITDA of $1.3 billion to surpass forecasts of $1.8 billion in sales and $897 million in EBITDA. Despite this impressive performance, Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) stock price declined. White believes this was because of higher-than-expected cost guidance.
The analyst did not agree with this market reaction and suggested that the increased costs are justified by the need to sustain strong growth. White believes that Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) will grow because of its strong retail market share and expanding subscription and service revenues. White also noted near-term opportunities for Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN), such as the potential of Stablecoin and Base L2. He noted that the USDC market cap is nearing all-time highs and that Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) has an advantage over rivals like Tether in on-chain transfer volumes. Additionally, White expects financial institutions to adopt these platforms, especially following potential legislative developments, which he believes are likely to occur in 2025.
Overall, COIN ranks 2nd on our list of the worst-performing crypto stocks to buy now. While we acknowledge the potential of COIN as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than COIN but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and Complete List of 59 AI Companies Under $2 Billion in Market Cap.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
