With a direct listing on Nasdaq, Coinbase, an American Crypto giant went public on Wednesday.
Ahead of the legacy players such as Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Coinbase is becoming the most valuable exchange in the United States and the day one performance has been hailed as being positive in all ramification.
The performance of Coinbase on the first day of public listing has been described as watershed moment for the crypto space.
Trading under the ticker “COIN,” Coinbase stock opened at $381, which. as expected, was significantly higher than the $250 pre-listing reference price.
COIN reached a price high of $429.54 before slipping to $310.44 on a rocky and volatile first day. Coinbase stock closed out on the first day of trading at $328.28.
In terms of valuation, Coinbase is currently sitting on $85.8 billion in diluted market capitalization. This figure puts the company more than $10 billion ahead of the CME — the second-most-valuable exchange in America.
Coinbase’s listing on the Nasdaq was arguably a major win for the stock exchange, much like Facebook almost a decade ago.
Back in May 2012, the social media giant went public via an initial public offering on Nasdaq. Like Coinbase, Facebook’s first trading day saw volatile stock price action as the listing coincided with a downward slide in the U.S. stock market.