- Coinbase ended its first day of trading at $100 billion in valuation
- COIN hit $430 in early trading before dipping 27%, ending up at $328
- Bitcoin hit an all-time high on listing day
Coinbase shares enjoyed a fitting debut on the Nasdaq as the share price jumped to $420 before enduring a Bitcoin-style 27.5% correction. COIN shares ended the day at $328, leaving Coinbase valued at $99.6 billion, with founder Brian Armstrong’s reward for nine years of hard work equating to some $15 billion. Bitcoin, which many people thought would have a hugely volatile day, saw all-time highs before a $3,500 correction, which was tamer than had been expected.
Coinbase Futures Hit $620 Ahead of Listing
The eyes of the financial world were on the COIN ticker on Nasdaq yesterday, partly because of the nature of the company being inducted but also because Coinbase did not have an IPO, meaning there was no benchmark for valuation. The first cryptocurrency company to ever list on the Nasdaq, prices as low as $250 were being mooted while COIN futures on FTX were trading at as high as $620 ahead of the Coinbase listing. In the end the coin jumped to $420 in early minutes before enduring a steady drop throughout the day before a final bounce saw it end at $328 per share:
Powell Compares Bitcoin to Gold
There was, of course, a certain amount of skepticism over the broader concept of a cryptocurrency company now being a listed stock. Federal Reserve head Jerome Powell, speaking at a public event yesterday, called cryptocurrencies “vehicles for speculation” before adding:
No one is using them for payments, for example, like the dollar. It’s a little bit like gold…Human beings have given gold this special value that it doesn’t have from an industrial standpoint, but nonetheless for thousands of years they’ve done that. Bitcoin is much more like that.
Many Bitcoin supporters would take issue with the suggestion that Bitcoin is not used for payments but would actually agree that it is seen more like gold than a currency, so his comments aren’t actually that much off the mark.
Bitcoin itself hit an all-time high of $64,850 as Coinbase listed, before dropping down to test $61,325 yesterday, bullishly using its prior high as support. This suggests that more upside could be coming, while alts too continued to flourish.
