Bitcoin- And Ethereum-Related Stocks Are Soaring: What's Going On?

Shares of several crypto-related stocks including Marathon Digital Holdings Inc MARA, Riot Blockchain Inc RIOT and MicroStrategy Inc MSTR are trading higher Wednesday afternoon in sympathy with Coinbase Global Inc COIN, which reached a $100 million settlement with New York regulators.

What Happened: Coinbase settled a case with the New York Department of Financial Services. The cryptocurrency exchange will pay a $50 million fine and invest an additional $50 million to improve its compliance program, according to a statement from Coinbase.

A new regulatory filing indicates the regulators found that Coinbase violated anti-money-laundering laws by allowing customers to open accounts without conducting appropriate background checks and gathering sufficient information.

"The Department’s Examination found significant deficiencies across Coinbase’s compliance program, including its Know-Your- Customer/Customer Due Diligence (“KYC/CDD”) procedures, its Transaction Monitoring System (“TMS”), and its OFAC screening program," the filing states.

See More Details Here: Why Crypto-Linked Stock Coinbase Is Surging Today

Marathon Digital is engaged in mining digital assets like Bitcoin (CRYPTO:Bitcoin) and Ethereum ETH/USD. Marathon shares were up 23.5% at $4.20 at the time of writing.

Riot Blockchain is focused on building, supporting and operating blockchain technologies. The stock was up 13.7% at $3.83 Wednesday afternoon.

MicroStrategy is a business intelligence, mobile software and cloud-based services company. More than anything else, it's a bet on Bitcoin, as the firm owns more than 130,000 Bitcoin. MicroStrategy shares were up 12.6% at $163.24 at last check.

Photo: Serg Dementev from Pixabay.