Here Are 3 Top Bitcoin Stocks For Traders

The bitcoin space is drawing an incredible amount of attention right now as the price of the underlying asset (bitcoin) continues to rise. The latest broken threshold was $4,500 and there's every chance we could see $5,000 breached before the end of the week.In the wake of the mainstream attention, companies of all shapes and sizes are hitching their wagon to the bitcoin train in an attempt to draw collateral benefit from the situation. And in many cases, it's working. Regular readers will know that we've kept on top of the space over the last few months and – along the way – we've highlighted what we felt were some of the top microcap bitcoin plays.As bitcoin nears $5,000, here's a look at three of the top bitcoin exposures available right now.

Bitcoin Investment Trust (OTCMKTS:GBTC)

Our number one play in this space isn’t a company, but it is traded over the counter on the OTCQX. The Bitcoin Investment Trust was set up by an entity called Grayscale investors to gain exposure to the price movement of bitcoin through a traditional investment vehicle, without the challenges of buying, storing, and safekeeping bitcoins. There still exists considerable barriers to both acquiring and storing bitcoin and, however much the mainstream media seeks to cover the digital currency, the truth is that the vast majority of individuals (and this includes traders and investors in the traditional asset markets) don't want, or know how, to buy bitcoin as an asset.In its attempt to overcome this problem, Bitcoin Investment Trust acts as a sort of ETF type exposure (the Trust is trying to gain ETF status but as yet hasn’t had much luck with the SEC) and, as far as OTC exposures go, it is for us the least risky of all the options on the table right now.That it was set up by Barry Silbert, founder of Grayscale and a guy that built a solid reputation in the bitcoin space way before it picked up steam and moved towards the mainstream, stands it in good stead moving forward.Bitcoin Investment Trust is up 438% year to date.Check out our coverage of this one here.

MGT Capital Investments Inc. (OTCMKTS:MGTI)

This one might be something of a controversial choice but, when it comes to microcap companies in this sector (in other words, when we exclude ETF like assets like Bitcoin Investment Trust) none are as established or as well known as MGT. Our regular readers will know that this is one of the companies we end up coming back to quite regularly and it's headed up by cyber security legend John McAfee.The company started to build out its own bitcoin mining facility during the second half of last year and has continued to build on its initial efforts throughout the first half of this one. At last count, the company had around 1,400 Antminer S9s in play at the facility and is operating at a computing power of over 18 PH/s. This enables the generation of around 225 bitcoins monthly which, at today's price, equates to a little over $1.01 million. This isn’t net the electricity required to maintain these miners, of course, but it’s not bad for a company of MGT's size. Add in the recent focus on Ethereum, a cryptocurrency that looks next in line to hit the mainstream media in the way that bitcoin has of late, and there's every chance this one's going to continue to run over the next twelve months.MGT is up 227% since mid-May.Check out our coverage of this one here.

BTCS Inc (OTCMKTS:BTCS)

We're going to close out this list with something of a wildcard. BTCS is a company that has been around for a while and actually started out life as the owner operator of what's called Bitcoin Shop Ltd. The latter was (and still is) a platform that allows people to buy goods with bitcoin that otherwise wouldn’t be available through other platforms. The model was essentially an affiliate type setup (for the most part), with Bitcoin Shop listing products that were listed on, say, Amazon, and operating through an instant exchange mechanism.Anyway, there doesn’t seem to be too much activity on that side of things right now and it's not the reason that BTCS has qualified for placement on this list. Instead, we're interested in the company's focus on Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and what this focus might mean going forward. ICOs are a sort of IPO for the digital currency space. They allow companies to raise capital through issuing a digital currency that is (in most cases) unique to them, and the participants in the ICO gain when the company takes off and the value of the coins (tokens) issued at ICO rises.Right now, there's a huge amount of activity in the ICO space but as things stand it remains something of a wild west. We know BTCS wants to get into the space and we think there's plenty of room for a company to swoop in and serve up some structure.As we've said, this is the wild card of the bunch. We don't yet have any specifics on how this company plans to tackle ICOs, so our thesis is speculative right now. With that said, BTCS has tracked bitcoin to date so as a short term play there's plenty of upside potential assuming bitcoin continues to appreciate.BTCS is up 116% year to date.Check out our previous coverage of this one here.We will be updating our subscribers as soon as we know more. For the latest updates on the bitcoin space, sign up below!Disclosure: We have no position in any of the securities mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.