Small-cap stocks are having their best run relative to large caps in more than 20 years. The Russell 2000 has beaten the S&P 500 by nearly 14 percentage points in the first six months of 2025, a gap that, if it holds through December, would be the largest since the early 2000s.
What’s driving the gap
Bitcoin surged approximately 85% year-to-date through June, and that rally didn’t just lift spot prices. It sent shockwaves through the small-cap universe, particularly among Bitcoin mining stocks that live inside the Russell 2000.
Bit Digital saw its stock price jump 627% during this period. Marathon Digital Holdings climbed 297%. Cipher Mining posted substantial gains of its own. These companies give traditional equity investors direct exposure to Bitcoin’s price movements without requiring anyone to set up a wallet or navigate on-chain infrastructure.
The crypto connection runs deeper than miners
