It's been a shaky day for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) so far this Wednesday. For most of the current session, ASX 200 shares were well in the green. But the latest inflation figures seem to have dented investors' confidence, with the index now back to around the breakeven mark. But no one seems to have told the BetaShares Crypto Innovators ETF (ASX: CRYP).
Although the ASX 200 is on shaky ground, this ASX exchange-traded fund (ETF) has rocketed in value. Crypto Innovators ETF units are presently up a pleasing 7.06% at $2.88 each.
So what's going on here?
Why is the Crypto Innovators ETF smashing the ASX today?
Well, let's backtrack and go over how an ETF works. An ETF is really a holding fund for whatever assets the fund itself contains in its underlying portfolio. In this case, the Crypto Innovators ETF holds a collection of mostly US companies (almost 80% of the fund) that are involved in the cryptocurrency industry.
As with any ETF, Crypto Innovators units rise and fall in value based on the value of whatever assets it holds. That gives us an indication of what's going on here.
So this ETF holds the following companies at the top of its portfolio at present:
- Microstrategy Inc with a 12.6% weighting
- Marathon Digital Holdings at 12.2%
- Coinbase Global Inc at 11.7%
- Galaxy Digital Holdings at 10.8%
- Riot Blockchain Inc at 8.1%
There are presently 30 holdings in this ETF's portfolio. But those are the top five.
So during last night's trading session over in the US, we saw Microstrategy shares rise an impressive 13.1%.
Marathon Digital shares were up an even more impressive 14.4%.
Coinbase stock also rose around 13%, while Galaxy Digital was up a far tamer 3.56%.
But Riot Blockchain takes the cake with its 15.87% rise.
It's also not hard to see why these companies had such a strong session. All are heavily involved in the world of cryptocurrencies in one way or another. For example, Coinbase is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world.
And we have also seen cryptocurrencies sharply rise in value in recent days. Take Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC). It's up almost 5% in just the past 24 hours. Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) is doing even better, rising more than 11% over the same period.
So it's no surprise the Crypto Innovators ETF is having such a stellar day today. Even so, this ASX ETF remains down a painful 63.12% over 2022 thus far.
