Goldman Sachs Identifies 19 Crypto Stocks That Are Significantly Outperforming the S&P 500

Wall Street banking giant Goldman Sachs has identified a new group of cryptocurrency-related stocks that are performing much better than the index itself.

In a note to investors on Tuesday, April 27, analysts at the investment bank highlighted 19 U.S. stocks with a market cap of more than $1 billion and strong ties to the cryptocurrency and blockchain industries.

Goldman Sachs investment experts noted that many of these stocks have "significantly outperformed" the broader stock market, with the companies' average return this year being 43%, more than three times the 13% earned by the S&P 500 over the same period.

The two stocks leading the way so far are cryptocurrency mining companies Marathon Digital Holdings and Riot Blockchain, which have gained 218% and 151% respectively so far this year.

Tesla has also had a solid year, with its stock reaching an all-time high of $883 in January just weeks before it announced a $1.5 billion investment in Bitcoin. Facebook is also considered a leader in the space, with plans to launch its own cryptocurrency this year.

Another corporate backer of bitcoin is MicroStrategy, whose shares surged in mid-April, just before bitcoin itself hit an all-time high of $65,000. Goldman Sachs estimates the company’s bitcoin holdings are worth about $4.5 billion.

Jack Dorsey’s payments company Square has also poured money into crypto assets with a $220 million Bitcoin buying spree. Other payment giants leaning heavily into crypto include PayPal, MasterCard, and Visa, all of which offer some form of digital asset payments and even trade in some cases.

Goldman analysts noted that two large banks, BNY Mellon and JPMorgan Chase, have already pioneered blockchain technology through cryptocurrency custody and interbank transactions.

U.S. exchange Coinbase, exchange operator Overstock.com, blockchain pioneer IBM, microchip maker Nvidia and financial services firms InvestView, Broadridge Financial and Ideanomics round out the list.

In a note to clients last week, Dan Ives, an analyst at investment firm Wedbush Securities, painted the bigger picture:

“The story and theme here is much more than just investing in Bitcoin and predicting its potential price path… This is about the potential impact that crypto, blockchain, and Bitcoin could have on the entire corporate world over the next decade.”

Despite the lack of a U.S. Bitcoin ETF, hundreds of funds have made significant investments in the crypto and blockchain industries, Cointelegraph reported.