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Bitcoin up, software stocks down since the war began

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Bitcoin up, software stocks down since the war began

Since the outbreak of the war with Iran on Feb. 28, bitcoin has started to diverge from software equities, with the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV), serving as a useful proxy for the sector.

Bitcoin has been one of the strongest-performing assets during this period, rising more than 5% and trading back above $69,000, including a gain of more than 0.5% over the past 24 hours.

IGV, in contrast, has fallen more than 2% since the conflict began. That gap suggests investors are starting to treat bitcoin and software stocks differently, at least in the near term.

Until recently, the two had moved closely together. Over the past three months, bitcoin fell 26% and the ETF lost 23%. Year to date, both are lower by about 21%. Over five years, bitcoin has gained 18% compared with 10% for IGV. In other words, both have moved in the same direction, but the cryptocurrency has done so with much greater volatility.

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That is also clear in their declines. Bitcoin had fallen roughly 50% from its October all-time high, while IGV, which peaked slightly earlier, fell about 35% from its own top.

The correlation data tells the same story. From early February, bitcoin and IGV were almost perfectly correlated, close to 1.0, meaning they were moving nearly in lockstep. After the war began, that relationship broke down sharply, with the correlation dropping to 0.13, a level that signals near decoupling, before rebounding to around 0.7. The figure can range between -1.0 and +1.0, with 0 indicating no correlation at all.

Why have software stocks been hit harder?

IGV is heavily weighted toward large software and services companies such as Microsoft (MSFT), Oracle (ORCL) and Salesforce (CRM). Investors are increasingly worried that artificial intelligence will compress margins and valuation multiples across software, especially in Software as a Service (SaaS), as competition rises and barriers to entry fall. Bitcoin, meanwhile, is trading more like a macro asset, benefiting from geopolitical uncertainty.

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Crypto World

DATs Need Liquid Staking to Outperform ETH Staking ETFs: Lido Exec

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DATs Need Liquid Staking to Outperform ETH Staking ETFs: Lido Exec

Ether treasury companies may need to use liquid staking and other active yield strategies if they want to offer investors something beyond the staking rewards already available through listed Ether products, Kean Gilbert, head of institutional relations at Lido, told Cointelegraph at ETHCC 2026.

Liquid staking lets Ether (ETH) holders stake their tokens while receiving a transferable token that can still be deployed elsewhere in decentralized finance (DeFi).

Gilbert said strategies such as posting ETH as collateral and borrowing against it could help treasury companies generate higher returns than passive staking products.

US-listed staked ETH products now include the REX-Osprey ETH + Staking ETF, launched in September 2025, Grayscale’s Ethereum Staking ETF and Ethereum Staking Mini ETF, and BlackRock’s iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF, introduced on March 12.

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Issuer disclosures show different staking economics across Ether products, making direct yield comparisons difficult. Grayscale’s ETHE page showed 2.26% net staking rewards as of April 6, while Grayscale’s ETH page showed 2.56% as of April 2. Native ETH staking was yielding about 2.72% annually, according to Staking Rewards.

Related: Bitmine paper loss nears $8.8B as Ether slump tests cyclical thesis

Still, Jimmy Xue, co-founder and chief operating officer of quantitative yield platform Axis, said Ether treasury companies do not necessarily need to beat staked Ether products on headline yield because they are different investment vehicles.

“A staked ETH ETF is a passive vehicle. A DAT trading at a meaningful mNAV premium is promising something a passive ETF structurally cannot deliver, which is active, dynamic deployment of spot inventory across opportunities as they arise.”

“The mNAV premium investors pay reflects confidence in management’s ability to put that treasury to work,” Xue said, adding that basis trading is a major yield source for treasury companies.

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Kean Gilbert, head of institutional relations at Lido Finance, interviewed by Cointelegraph at ETHcc. Source: Cointelegraph

Public filings show liquid staking adoption

Public disclosures show several Ether treasury firms using staking or liquid-staking-related strategies, though the level of detail varies by company.

Sharplink Gaming, the second-largest corporate Ether holder, has generated 14,516 ETH (around $30.8 million) in staking rewards as of March. It derived 33% of these rewards from liquid staking and 66% from native staking, according to a March 1 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Sharplink reported a $734 million net loss for 2025, largely driven by the sharp crypto market downturn in the second half of the year.

BTCS Inc. SEC filing. Source: SEC.gov

BTCS Inc., the 10th-largest Ether treasury company by returns, has also staked a part of its Ether holdings through the liquid staking protocol Rocket Pool. Out of its total 29,122 ETH holdings, the company has liquid staked 4,160 ETH ($8.8 million) through Rocket Pool nodes, according to a July 2025 SEC filing.

Cointelegraph has approached BitMine, SharpLink and The Ether Machine for comment on the role of liquid staking in their strategies.

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Magazine: Sharplink exec shocked by level of BTC and ETH ETF hodling — Joseph Chalom