Wall Street Firms Advise Buying Bitcoin Proxies Over Direct Crypto

Wall Street analysts are advising clients concerned about crypto exchange hacks to gain exposure through publicly traded Bitcoin proxies instead of holding digital assets directly.

Firms including Cantor Fitzgerald, TD Cowen, and Compass Point Research & Trading have pointed to the recent record $6.4 billion theft from Binance as a specific security failure of that platform, not a systemic threat to the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem. Their analysis suggests the incident underscores the risks of holding assets on centralized exchanges.

In response, these analysts are directing institutional and retail investor attention toward traditional market equities with significant crypto exposure. Recommended proxies include companies like cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, trading platform Robinhood, and Bitcoin mining firm CleanSpark.

The guidance frames these public stocks as a way to gain correlated upside from Bitcoin’s price movements while avoiding the perceived custody and security risks associated with direct digital asset ownership on exchanges.