Coinbase stock soars as Bitcoin rallies, despite app glitch
Coinbase, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, saw its stock (COIN) close above $200 for the first time since January 2022, reaching $200.80 by market close on Wednesday. This milestone comes amid a significant increase in trading volume, with more than $8.6 billion traded in 24 hours, nearly double the previous day’s volume. The surge in activity caused a glitch in Coinbase’s app, temporarily showing customer balances as $0. Despite the technical issue, which has since been resolved, the company’s stock remains over 40% down from its all-time high of $342.98 set in November 2021.
Coinbase’s stock surge and the trading volume spike coincide with Bitcoin’s price rally, which saw the cryptocurrency exceed $60,000, reaching a high of $64,000. The increased activity suggests a potential return of retail investors to the crypto market, as indicated by a jump in Coinbase’s app store ranking and a rise in Google search volume for crypto-related terms. Meanwhile, Ark Invest has sold over $17 million in Coinbase shares, continuing to rebalance its fund weightings amid the price surge.
Coinbase’s valuation now stands at $37.4 billion, with the recent trading volume representing significant portions of the total volume in the last two quarters of 2023. The platform’s performance issues were acknowledged by CEO Brian Armstrong, who cited the need for improved auto-scaling solutions. Institutional issuers of spot bitcoin ETFs, such as BlackRock, Ark Invest, and Grayscale Investments, which use Coinbase as their crypto custodian, were reportedly unaffected by the glitch.
In related news, a massive withdrawal of approximately 16,000 BTC, valued at roughly $1 billion, was recorded from Coinbase during Asia trading hours on March 1. This withdrawal was confirmed by multiple platforms, including Santiment, Arkham, and Coinglass, and occurred as Bitcoin’s price experienced a considerable surge. Despite the withdrawal, Coinbase’s holdings saw a significant drop from about 398k to 381k BTC.