US: Coinbase shares jump 71% on first day of trading

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - Coinbase on Wednesday saw shares rise as much as 71% on its first trading day on the US stock market.

The stock price of the American cryptocurrency exchange platform climbed as high as $429.02 on Nasdaq, which gave it a reference price of $250. Shares were trading around $390 at 1.50 p.m. EDT (1750GMT), giving it a market valuation of more than $100 billion.

Instead of conventional initial public offerings (IPO) seen in US markets, Coinbase preferred a direct listing on Nasdaq, which enabled a market-driven price for its stocks to be traded.

Coinbase announced last week its revenue in the first quarter soared to $1.8 billion from $190 million the same period in 2020, as cryptocurrencies have recently become popular.

Founded in 2012 as a platform for users to easily buy and sell Bitcoin, Coinbase has become the US' largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume with more than 56 million users.

In less than a decade, the cryptocurrency market surpassed $2 trillion valuation with Bitcoin's market cap currently around $1.1 trillion.

The world's top two cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum, saw new record levels on Wednesday with $64,829 and $2,400, respectively. They were less than $7,000 and $160 a year ago.

Even Dogecoin, an altcoin initially created as a joke in 2013, hit an all-time high of $0.145396 earlier Wednesday with more than a $16 billion market value.