Google Advertising Monopoly Crippled by Crypto Winter as Tech Stocks Tumble

Digital asset companies and investors are not the only ones being battered during the crypto winter. Search giant Google also claims to be suffering.

Google chief business officer, Philipp Schindler, said that a slowdown in advertising spending by crypto companies has hampered revenue growth.

The comments came during Alphabet’s third-quarter earnings call on Oct. 25. He said that there had been a “pullback in spend by some advertisers in certain areas in search,” for the period.

Insurance, loan, mortgage, and crypto subcategories of financial services decreased their ad spending, he added.

The declines resulted in Google’s weakest period of advertising growth since 2013 with just 6%, according to CNBC.

Tech Stocks Still Slumping  

Alphabet shares slumped 7% in after-hours trading on Tuesday as weaker-than-expected earnings were reported. YouTube ad revenue declined by around 2% from the same period last year.

CEO Sundar Pichai blamed a “challenging macro climate” for the company’s lackluster performance. GOOGL had fallen to $97.60 in late trading. The tech stock has lost almost 33% since the beginning of the year.

Alphabet was not the only tech stock in the red yesterday. Software behemoth Microsoft lost 8.1% following a disappointing revenue forecast. The company posted its weakest quarterly sales growth in five years. MSFT fell to $233.87, compounding the 30% decline in share prices so far this year.

Meta shares also fell in after-hours trading with a 5.6% decline to $131.85. Furthermore, consumer sentiment for its grand Metaverse plans has waned. META has slumped more than 60% since the beginning of 2022.

Crypto markets have been highly correlated with tech stocks this year. These risk-on assets have taken a beating with the Nasdaq losing 30% since Jan. 1. The more volatile crypto market has declined by 56% over the same period.

A Rare Move in Crypto Winter

In a rare upwards move in crypto winter, total market capitalization has topped $1 trillion on Wednesday. It is the highest the figure has been for three weeks following a 4.6% upswing.

Bitcoin has breached the psychological $20K barrier again. The asset was trading up 4.4% on the day at $20,162 at the time of writing according to CoinGecko.

Ethereum was performing even better with a 10% daily pump. This has pushed ETH prices up to $1,481, their highest since mid-Sept.

Other big gainers today include Cardano, Solana, Dogecoin, and Polkadot. However, markets remain within their range-bound channel as the consolidation continues.