Coinbase Goes Public, Opening the Crypto Floodgates

Coinbase Goes Public, Opening the Crypto Floodgates

Digital currencies stormed Wall Street in a big way this week. Crypto exchange Coinbase went public in a direct listing, opening the floodgates for a number of other crypto-related companies.

This move brings us one step closer to mass acceptance of cryptocurrencies.

Before now, investors seeking to participate had a few options other than to hold the underlying assets.

The most obvious among these is to own shares of the crypto miners, including HIVE Blockchain Technologies, the only publicly traded firm to mine both Bitcoin and Ether using green energy. There are also futures contracts through CME Group, and a number of issuers have filed for a Bitcoin ETF.

With Coinbase, ticker COIN, investors get exposure to the entire $2.2 trillion crypto ecosystem, including not just Bitcoin and Ether but also smaller yet fast-growing coins like Dogecoin. All cryptos mentioned hit fresh new highs this week following Coinbase’s debut.

The stock traded a staggering $29 billion in volume on its first day, which could be an all-time high, according to Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas.

Several commentators pointed out that Coinbase ended lower than it opened at. As I told Cointelegraph this week, I’ve seen this story play out many times over my 30 years in managing money. Often when a company is up 300% in a year and goes public, it can easily sell off 30%. I don’t believe investors should be too worried about Coinbase’s volatility. I’m incredibly bullish.

That’s not to say the industry isn’t volatile. It remains extremely volatile. Dogecoin is up more than 400% from last Friday. A tweet by Documenting Ether today shows just how much your investment would be today had you used the April 2020 stimulus check to buy Bitcoin, Ether or Dogecoin. It’s hard to look at these figures and not kick yourself.