Bitcoin established a fresh all-time high of $72,662 on Monday morning, according to CoinGecko data, as the wider crypto industry also has enjoyed the spoils of its recent surge: Shares of the largest U.S. exchange, Coinbase, just topped their direct listing price for the first time since December 2021.
Coinbase stock rose 5.8% Friday to close at $256.62. When the exchange went public in a direct listing in April 2021, the share price was set at $250. They’re up almost 5% today to about $269.
Shares broke an all-time high close of $350 in November 2021, but, as the Securities and Exchange Commission targeted the industry and a Crypto Winter ensued, they’d fallen by nearly 40% just a year after going public.
A result of surging use, the platform suffered its second outage in a week last Monday, with many users seeing zero-dollar balances when logging in. But investors appear undeterred by the Coinbase’s technical glitches.
“We are aware some users may experience increased latency across Coinbase.com, and a few users may see intermittent zero balance. Rest assured, your funds are safe,” Coinbase said in a post on X.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s latest record high comes after the original cryptocurrency last week broke the much-anticipated barrier of $69,000, a peak not seen since November 2021.
Last time #Bitcoin broke above its ATH it pumped with +22%.
We are only getting started with this $BTC pump. pic.twitter.com/zqoc0rCsGD
— Mister Crypto (@misterrcrypto) March 11, 2024
The gains for both Coinbase and Bitcoin can be explained by the industry’s wider bull market, as exchanges, cryptocurrencies, and adjacent stocks benefit from money pumping into nine of the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds that the SEC approved on Jan. 11, issued by mainstream financial institutions such as BlackRock and Fidelity.
The products have made it easier for retail investors and IRA holders to gain exposure to Bitcoin without needing to buy it from a crypto exchange or navigate on-chain wallets.
ETF inflows reached a record high last week at $2.24 billion and, as of Monday, collectively have accumulated over $55 billion in assets under management in two months of trading, according to Bloomberg data.
Meanwhile, stocks of other crypto-related companies also have been rising. For example, shares of MicroStrategy, an enterprise software firm and the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, with about 193,000 coins, have more than doubled over the last month, trading today for around $1,600. Over the last year, they’re up more than 600%.
