Cryptocurrency stocks emerged as one of the top-performing sectors on Monday, as capital flowed out of chip and AI infrastructure stocks.

Bitmine Immersion, an Ethereum accumulator, surged 11%, while Strategy, a pioneer in Bitcoin treasury holdings, jumped 7%. Coinbase also rose 4.5%.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin miners with AI business operations saw their share prices decline, as chip and AI infrastructure stocks faced pressure amid market concerns over circular financing issues and intensifying competition from Chinese semiconductor companies.

Cipher Mining led the sector's decline, falling 8%. Hut 8 and Terawulf dropped 6% and 4%, respectively. This weakness even extended to pure-play Bitcoin miners.

Riot Platforms fell 5%, Mara Holdings slipped 3%, and CleanSpark declined 4%. Core Scientific, which has largely transitioned away from Bitcoin mining, dropped 9%.

Key Reason Behind the Weakness

"Today's weakness partly reflects market concerns about capital expenditure requirements and whether companies moving from mining to AI may need to raise incremental funds at higher costs to finance their development plans," said a senior research analyst. "Some investors are questioning whether credit demand for these projects is approaching its limits, and which developers can fund their growth plans without massive equity dilution, taking on expensive debt, or lacking additional support from customers and strategic partners."