MSTR, BMNR Rise After BOJ Rate Decision Results In Bitcoin, Ethereum Rebound

Crypto-linked equities moved higher in after-hours trading following the Bank of Japan’s rate hike, which appeared to stabilize the cryptocurrency market.

• The BOJ raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 0.75%, the highest level since 1995, in a widely expected move.
• Strategy’s stock edged higher alongside Bitcoin, which steadied near $87,000 after earlier weakness.
• Bitcoin miners also saw gains, led by Bit Digital, which rose more than 4% in after-hours trading.

Strategy (MSTR), BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) and other crypto-linked equities gained in after-hours trade on Thursday as the cryptocurrency market stabilized following the Bank of Japan’s rate hike.

The Bank of Japan increased its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 0.75%, the highest level since 1995. MSTR’s stock edged 0.62% higher as Bitcoin’s price edged 0.1% in the last 24 hours. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around the Bitcoin proxy and the apex cryptocurrency remained in ‘extremely bearish’ territory over the past day, accompanied by ‘low’ levels of chatter.

Meanwhile, BMNR’s stock gained 1.17% in after hours trade as Ethereum’s price rose 3.1% in the last 24 hours. Retail sentiment around the digital asset treasury (DAT) continued to trend in ‘extremely bearish’ territory over the past day but chatter rose to ‘normal’ from ‘low' levels. Meanwhile, retail sentiment around Ethereum improved to ‘bearish’ from ‘extremely bearish’ over the past day but chatter remained at ‘low’ levels.

Crypto Miners Gain

Among crypto miners, Bit Ditigal (BTBT) led gains in after hours trade, up 4.4% after gaining 2.5% in regular trading. Retail sentiment around the company improved to ‘neutral’ from ‘bearish’ territory over the past day,

Hut 8 (HUT) was also on the uptrend, gaining 3.27% in after hours trade. HUT’s stock saw a dip of 3.9% in the previous session, likely due to profit taking after the stock shot up on Wednesday following its $7 billion deal to provide AI data center capacity through infrastructure provider Fluidstack, with financial backing from Google (GOOGL). Retail sentiment around the company remained in ‘extremely bullish’ territory over the past day, accompanied by ‘extremely high’ levels of chatter.

Crypto Exchanges Show Muted Response

Coinbase (COIN) and Gemini (GEMI) edged 0.56% higher in after hours trade. Retail sentiment around Coinbase’s stock improved to ‘neutral’ from ‘bearish’ over the past day after the company announced the introduction of stock trading on its platform and an integration with Kalshi for prediction markets. Chatter remained at ‘high’ levels.

Retail sentiment around Gemini’s stock, however, dipped to ‘neutral’ from ‘bullish’ over the past day as message volume fell to ‘low’ from ‘high’ levels.

Robinhood (HOOD) gained 0.67% and Bullish (BLSH) rose 0.47%. 

BOJ’s Rate Decision

The Bank of Japan said real interest rates are expected to remain “significantly negative,” signaling that financial conditions will stay accommodative despite the rate hike. Policymakers reiterated that monetary tightening would proceed gradually and remain dependent on sustained wage and price growth.

Japan began unwinding its ultra-loose monetary policy last year, ending the world’s only negative interest rate regime that had been in place since 2016. Since then, the central bank has emphasized the need for a “virtuous cycle” of rising wages and inflation before moving rates meaningfully higher.

The rate hike comes as Japanese government bond yields have climbed to multi-decade highs, raising concerns over higher borrowing costs and increased fiscal pressure for the heavily indebted economy.

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