Crypto names climb after SEC prepares for stock tokenization, TradFi names weaken: Financials week

Crypto-related stocks made up four of the week's top five financial sector gainers as more traditional finance names struggled.

The overall sector, as illustrated by the State Street Financial Sector SPDR ETF XLF, dipped 2.4% for the week ended Sept. 18, a steeper decline than the S&P 500's SPX 0.1% tick down. The KBW Nasdaq Bank Index BBKX took an even bigger tumble, dropping 4.9%.

The week featured the first Federal Reserve rate hike in more than three years and a move by the Securities and Exchange Commission that paves the way to allow trading of tokenized stocks. That offset the earlier setback when the Clarity Act failed to make it to the Senate floor earlier in the week. Bitcoin BTCUSD ended the week up ~4.8%, rising to almost $81K on Friday, its highest level since early May.

The five biggest gainers for financial stocks with market cap of over $2B were:

• Bill Ackman's alternative asset manager, Pershing Square PS, rising 32% for the week;
• Hyperliquid Strategies PURR, up 21%; 
• Coinbase Global COIN, jumping 11%;
• Riot Platforms RIOT, gaining 11%; and
• MARA Holdings MARA, also increasing 11%.

The five stocks that dropped the most were:

• Enova International ENVA, a fintech that offers installment loans, slumped 22% after the company withdrew applications related to its proposed acquisition of Grasshopper Bancorp;
• Asset manager Lazard LAZ dropped 13%;
• Insurtech firm Ethos Technologies LIFE sank 11%; 
• Private equity and venture capital firm Hamilton Lane HLNE slid 8.6%; and
• Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs GS dipped 8.5% after its CEO warned that its FICC business will be a “bit softer” compared with the prior quarter.