On Wednesday, Bitcoin broke its all-time record and for the first time exceeded the mark of $64,000 in view of the approaching listing of Coinbase securities on the NASDAQ exchange, which is scheduled for April 14. At the time of writing this material, the digital gold was trading at $64,207. The market capitalization of the popular crypto asset rose to $1.2 trillion with daily trading volumes of $73.97 billion. This year, bitcoin prices have more than doubled, and all thanks to the interest of large investors from The Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and many well-known companies, including Tesla.
According to CoinDesk analyst Damanik Dantes, the current upward trend of bitcoin will continue, and the next resistance level will be $68-70 thousand. As you can see, the popular digital currency has finished the consolidation stage that has been observed for the last three months.
The upcoming listing of shares of the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, Coinbase, on the NASDAQ, significantly affected the overcoming of a new record high by bitcoin. Coinbase is about to become the first ever public crypto exchange, and its Class A common shares will be shown on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker COIN.
Back in January, the sale of Coinbase shares to a limited number of investors on the NASDAQ Private Markets exchange platform started. The target was to determine the cost for the placement. In February, the price per share of Coinbase already reached $373, which increased the company's valuation to $100 billion. However, in March, the NASDAQ exchange put a different estimate on Coinbase – $77 billion.
The upcoming listing represents the most important and final stage on the path of cryptocurrencies from niche technologies to core assets. This event is truly historic, as it marks the growth of the cryptocurrency industry, its adoption into the main business.
However, some institutional investors are looking with concern towards the long-term prospects of Coinbase and the cryptocurrency sector. So, the Swiss asset manager Unigestion said that it does not understand all the hype around cryptocurrencies, so it would not buy shares of Coinbase. Hedge funds and retailers are likely to be the first movers and active buyers of these stocks, but this does not mean that these securities will be successful in the long run.
The American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase was founded in 2012 and today has 56 million users worldwide, as well as assets worth about $223 billion on its platform. According to regulatory documents, Coinbase accounts for 11.3% of the cryptocurrency market share. The company's revenue grew simultaneously with the growth of volumes and prices for bitcoin. So, in the first quarter of this year, when bitcoin more than doubled in price, the Coinbase exchange estimated its revenue at $1.8 billion, and net profit at $730-800 million. In 2020, the company's revenue was $1.3 billion.
Larry Cermak, director of research at The Block cryptocurrency website, is confident that the exchange's dependence on digital gold will peak as soon as Coinbase shares stabilize after the listing. If bitcoin starts to decline in price, then Coinbase's revenue, as well as the value of its shares, will inevitably decline.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company - www.instaforex.com