While many COVID-era tech stock favorites are struggling as the world returns to normal, the crypto market has overall remained strong since the pandemic's onset in early 2020.
Key Takeaways
- Netflix fell 37% yesterday on news that it lost subscribers for the first time in a decade, alongside other tech stock dips.
- Crypto, on the other hand, has remained flat alongside stock losses.
- In fact, while many pandemic-era favorite stocks have taken a hit, the crypto markets are still largely up since the pandemic's onset.
Netflix’s stock price collapsed by 37% Wednesday after its earnings report noted a subscriber loss, its first in 10 years. Many other pandemic-favorite stocks have seen trouble as the virus is increasingly seen as the new normal, while the crypto market favorites have maintained much of their gains.
Crypto Market Flat
Reminiscent of Meta’s historic shedding of a quarter trillion dollars in market value earlier this year, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) lost more than a third of its market capitalization yesterday, due largely to the world opening back up as the pandemic wanes.
Other popular tech stocks like Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:FB) and Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) also fell significantly yesterday (7% and 5%).
Despite the bloodshed in some of the most well-known companies in the world, the crypto market was been relatively flat Wednesday.
Bitcoin oscillated between $40,000 and $42,000 before settling back down just above $41,100, while Ethereum was only down about 1.4% yesterday at $3,070.
Following the extreme market crash of March 2020, when Bitcoin dipped below $4,000 and Ethereum below $100, crypto has seen an explosion in terms of both price and popularity. This was in part due to the dovish policies of central banks around the world during the pandemic, which also benefitted the stock market.
However, unlike many of the greatest beneficiary companies over the past two and a half years (i.e., during the pandemic), crypto has held up relatively well.
While the total cryptocurrency market capitalization has shed about one third of its value since the highs of last November, it still sits approximately ten times higher today than it did at the onset of the pandemic.
In contrast, many of the stock market favorites during the pandemic have collapsed. Peloton (NASDAQ:PTON) is down 77% over the past year; Zoom is down 67%; DocuSign (NASDAQ:DOCU) sits below $100, with all-time-highs over $300.
Cathie Wood’s flagship ARK Innovation (NYSE:ARKK) exchange-traded fund has lost two thirds of its value from its pandemic highs.
The list of hyped-up stocks that have such significant declines is extensive, including Fastly (NYSE:FSLY), Teladoc (NYSE:TDOC), Plug Power (NASDAQ:PLUG), Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX), and DraftKings (NASDAQ:DKNG).
Of course, the list of cryptocurrencies that have crumbled from their pandemic highs is also extensive. However, buying small “altcoins” is notoriously risky, and should be distinguished from the crypto market at large based on market cap and longevity.
However, as has been seen, investors in the stock market can lose a lot of money as well, and they do not even have to trade on the fringe to do so.