Coinbase, MARA and Riot Outrun Bitcoin as Tech Stocks Rebound

By late Tuesday morning, Coinbase, Strategy, Riot Platforms and MARA Holdings had climbed between 5% and 13%. Bitcoin (BTC), the asset all four of them rely on, mustered a gain of just 0.3% across 24 hours.

The move clawed back only a portion of a two-day decline that had stripped 8% to 14% from the four stocks. For their shareholders, daily price swings run far wider than Bitcoin's.

What Sent Crypto Stocks Higher on Election Day?

Tuesday brought three developments at once. Tech shares were healing, and the crypto names were bouncing back from two days of selling.

The Nasdaq Composite added roughly 1%, having shed 3.9% across the two prior sessions.

The third piece of news was specific to Coinbase, the biggest US crypto exchange. On Tuesday the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) cleared equity perpetual futures.

Such contracts never expire and track individual US stocks. Coinbase's derivatives arm had already filed to list them.

Even so, the biggest gainer was Riot, a Bitcoin miner that operates no trading venue of its own, at 13.3%. Shortly before 11 a.m. ET, Coinbase was up 8.6%, MARA 7.6% and Strategy 5.4%.

Miners produce new Bitcoin by operating specialized computers. Strategy's core business is buying and holding Bitcoin.

Are Short Sellers Behind the Bounce?

Short sellers sell borrowed shares in the hope of repurchasing them more cheaply. When a stock climbs sharply, they may be forced to buy back in a hurry, which pushes the price up further.

Nasdaq data show MARA's short interest stood at 111.9 million shares in mid-October, against 100.8 million two weeks before.

Riot's short position climbed to 53.6 million shares across the same stretch. Figures for late October have not been released yet, so how much short covering contributed remains unconfirmed.

What Could Undo Tuesday's Rally?

Last week Barclays lowered its Coinbase target to $120, after October trading fees came to only about $165 million.

Coinbase has nevertheless opened quarters slowly in the past. Through July 26 it had reported about $130 million, yet third-quarter trading revenue still finished at $590 million, according to its deck.

Riot is due to report third-quarter earnings before the market opens on Wednesday. Analysts anticipate a loss of $0.32 per share.

Riot Platforms reports third-quarter results Wednesday as it shifts from bitcoin mining toward AI and high-performance computing infrastructure.

Analysts expect a loss of 32 cents per share on about $159.7 million in revenue, an improvement from last quarter's steeper loss.…

— Jessica Gonzales (@lil_disruptor) November 3, 2026

Results of the US midterms are also due overnight. In a Bloomberg survey, investors linked Bitcoin's chances of hitting $100,000 to Republicans holding Congress.