Coinbase Shares Opened at $381 on IPO

Cryptocurrency trader Coinbase debuted on the Nasdaq today. Shares of the company opened at $381, which was more than 50 percent higher than the $250 reference price. The stock trades on the Nasdaq under the trading symbol $COIN.

The share price rose to a high of $429.54 within minutes of the IPO, although it later gradually declined to around $360 and continued to fluctuate at that price. At the time of writing, a single share costs about $315. With an opening price of $381, Coinbase’s total market value at the start of the IPO was nearly $100 billion, the Wall Street Journal also reported.

Nasdaq on Tuesday quoted a reference price of $250 a share, which would equate to a valuation of $65 billion. However, Coinbase’s IPO was a direct listing, meaning that the company sells the shares directly to traders, without intermediaries such as banks, who can bid on the shares and determine the price prior to the IPO. As a result, no transaction was executed at this target price at the start of the first trading day.

Coinbase already announced its IPO in December, and wrote a blog post in January formally announcing the direct listing. With the IPO, Coinbase is one of the largest public traders of cryptocurrencies. Coinbase’s share price is expected to be somewhat linked to the price of cryptocurrencies, whose value often fluctuates widely, CNBC also writes. As a result, the price could fall if the value of cryptocurrencies falls. In 2017, for example, Bitcoin reached a value of nearly $20,000, before falling to around $3,000 a year later.

The cryptocurrency market has seen a significant increase in recent months. The market value of a single Bitcoin crossed the $20,000 mark for the first time in mid-December, and is worth around $65,000 at the time of writing. Several companies are now accepting Bitcoins, including Tesla. PayPal now also allows users to pay with cryptocurrencies.