We recently compiled a list of the 20 Best Cryptocurrency Stocks to Buy According to Hedge Funds. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Iris Energy Limited (NASDAQ:IREN) stands against the other cryptocurrency stocks.
A Review of the Crypto World: Latest Updates
Crypto has emerged as a major political issue in the US with the campaigns for election going on. Head of Firmwide research Galaxy Digital Alex Thorn called August a rough and seasonally bad week for Bitcoin. He mentioned how eight out of the eleven prior Augusts witnessed the major coin trading down. However, political events have also played a role in the crypto landscape.
In Thorn’s opinion, most people view Trump’s victory as bullish for the crypto market. Trump who is now running for President brought the hopes of the crypto world higher by promising to deliver a plan to make the United States the ‘crypto capital of the planet’. Crypto became an even hotter topic as Kamala Haris simultaneously supported policies for the expansion of the industry. In the opinion of Thorn, most people view Trump’s victory as bullish for the crypto market. He predicts crypto will run quite higher if Trump ends up winning the election based on an anticipated easing of the regulations. On the other hand, he expects the victory of Harris to be more neutral even for the industry since those advising her belong to the Biden administration on crypto policy.
Looking forward to September which is a seasonally weak month for crypto too, the next months including October, November, and December are crypto’s most bullish months based on the seasonality factor. Regardless of the highly awaited Fed interest rate cuts just ahead of us, the crypto market investors still remain concerned as JPMorgan’s Head of Global and European Equity Strategy dismissed the potential of a crypto bull market. While September has been a historically worst month for US stocks, the upcoming rate cut might be an outlier in history.
In an interview with CNBC, Anthony Pompliano, Professional Capital Management CEO, talked about the recent price moves in Bitcoin. The German government offloading Bitcoin through as many exchanges and the Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox unloading coins onto the market are two important events defining this supply. Pompliano refers to Bitcoin as really illiquid with many Bitcoin holders having a long-term view of it. At the start of 2024, the Bitcoin amount that had not moved in more than a year was over 70%. Some of it started to get distributed as prices rose, as expected in a bull market. Although Pompliano expects this percentage to drop to 50% to 55% but still at least half of the Bitcoin would still be in the hands of people who have an over 10-year time horizon. Thus, the question revolves around whether these hands are strong enough to outlast the aforementioned two events. Pompliano finally states time as the only catalyst for Bitcoin rather than a pro-crypto candidate in the upcoming US elections. While the summer season is a bit slow, prices typically go back up in September and beyond.
Our Methodology:
In order to compile a list of the 20 best cryptocurrency stocks to buy according to hedge funds, we sifted through ETFs and online rankings to compile a preliminary list of 40 companies involved in the crypto space. Moving on, we shortlisted the top 20 stocks from our list which had the highest number of hedge fund holders. The 20 best cryptocurrency stocks to buy according to hedge funds have been arranged in ascending order of the number of hedge fund holders they have, as of Q2 2024.
At Insider Monkey we are obsessed with the stocks that hedge funds pile into. 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 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
A table full of technology, with bitcoin mining rigs and a laptop showing a financial graph.
Iris Energy Limited (NASDAQ:IREN)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 38
Iris Energy Limited (NASDAQ:IREN) owns, builds, and operates data centers and electrical infrastructure to mine Bitcoin. The company’s business model has been built on sustainably-mined Bitcoin. The founders Dan and Will saw a chance to capitalize on excess renewable energy and support energy networks while having an early conviction on Bitcoin. As a sustainable Bitcoin miner, the company’s sites are powered by 100% renewable energy. The company’s facilities are optimized for Bitcoin mining, AI cloud services, and other power-dense compute.
Iris Energy Limited (NASDAQ:IREN) holds a unique position in an emerging market by using low-cost excess renewable energy to keep costs low, support communities, and solve the energy market challenges. It has a solid portfolio comprising 260MW of operating data centers while it has plans to expand to 510MW in 2024. Recently in July, the company secured an additional 150MW of immediately available power capacity at its Childress site which raised its total secured grid-connected power capacity to 2,310MW. Among its peers, Iris qualifies as a large-scale miner with its strong Bitcoin mining hashrate.
For the full year ended June 30, Iris saw growth across its revenue, earnings, and cash flow. Driven by the growth in operating hashrate and higher Bitcoin prices, record Bitcoin mining revenue of $184.1 million was reported relative to the $75.5 million in 2023. As compared to 3,259 Bitcoin mined in fiscal year 2023, a record 4,191 Bitcoin were mined. Hence, Iris is on track to reach 30 exahashes per second by the last quarter of 2024 which demonstrates the future growth potential.
As a leading next-generation data center business powering the future of Bitcoin and AI with a strong market position and the potential for continuous growth, Iris Energy Limited is one of the largest publicly listed Bitcoin miners. As of Q2, the stock is held by 38 hedge funds. Castle Hook Partners is the dominant shareholder in the company with a position worth $77.5 million.
Overall IREN ranks 12th on our list of the best cryptocurrency stocks to buy according to hedge funds. While we acknowledge the potential of IREN as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some deeply undervalued AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for a deeply undervalued AI stock that is more promising than IREN but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.