Crypto Shares Sink. Upexi down 5%; Bit Digital down 4%; BitMine, SBET down over 3%; Strategy, MARA down about 2%

Crypto shares sank in premarket trading. Upexi down 5%; Bit Digital down 4%; MitMine, SBET down over 3%; Strategy, MARA down about 2%.

Major cryptocurrencies retreated to drag the market’s total value below $4 trillion after it scaled record heights last week.

Bitcoin fell as much as 2.2% to about $115,000 while Ether, the second-largest token, at one point shed more than 4% to dip below $4,300 on Monday. The combined value of all cryptocurrencies sank to $3.9 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

The losses come after Bitcoin hit a record $125,514 on August 14, while Ether on the same day pushed to within $100 of its own all-time high set in November 2021. The two leading tokens had been buoyed by a spree of institutional investment led by so-called digital-asset treasury companies — listed vehicles whose purpose is to create stockpiles of cryptocurrency. Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the original crypto hoarder that’s inspired a flood of imitators, has amassed more than $72 billion worth of Bitcoin.

The market “has seen continued profit-taking since a new all-time high printed last week,” said Caroline Mauron, co-founder of Orbit Markets, adding that “the momentum behind the crypto treasury boom appears to be losing steam.”

Metaplanet Inc., the Japanese hotel operator that’s so far accumulated $2.2 billion of Bitcoin, is down around 50% from a mid-June high.