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The
debut, done through a direct listing where no shares are sold
ahead of the opening, marked another milestone for bitcoin and
other digital assets and came amid a surge in the value of
cryptocurrencies that has lured a clutch of mainstream, top-tier
firms.
Cathie Wood's Ark funds bought $246 million worth of Coinbase
shares on Wednesday, while one of her funds sold a $4.4 million
stake in New York Stock Exchange-owner Intercontinental
Exchange, according to the firm's daily trade summary.
"Obviously, the excitement is there because this really just
strengthens the idea that, right now, you can invest not into
cryptocurrencies per se, but in companies that are already in
business in the cryptocurrency market," said Ipek Ozkardeskaya,
senior analyst at Swissquote Bank.
"At some point, there will be a normalization in the transaction
levels (in cryptocurrencies) and that's exactly what traditional
investors are looking to understand - are these levels normal?
Probably not."
Founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, San
Francisco-based Coinbase has 56 million users globally and an
estimated $223 billion assets on its platform, accounting for
11.3% of the crypto asset market share, regulatory filings
showed.
Coinbase's valuation, which was just under $6 billion as
recently as September, has surged in tandem with bitcoin's gains
this year. The world's biggest cryptocurrency however, was down
about 0.9% on Thursday after hitting a record high of $64,895.22
a day earlier.
At 6:42 a.m. ET, Coinbase shares were up 9.4% at $358.61,
valuing the cryptocurrency exchange more than Nasdaq Inc and
Intercontinental Exchange put together.
(Reporting by Niket Nishant, Sagarika Jaisinghani and Devik Jain
in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Vinay Dwivedi)
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