After going public yesterday on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange in the United States, Coinbase broke a new record by becoming the first cryptocurrency exchange to go public. That and an estimated valuation of $86 billion.
Coinbase hit as high as $429.54 per share compared to the conservative $250 estimate and closed at $328.28 per share.
For a brief history, Coinbase was founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong, a former Airbnb engineer and Fred Ehrsam, a Goldman Sachs trader. The exchange now has 56 million active users.
Coinbase is a remote first company with no formal headquarters and chose a direct listing instead of an Initial Public Offering, a radical move for its first day of trade.
Experts have predicted that the this sets a competitive tone for the future of crypto trading others believe that investing in coinbase is just as risky as ever. Coinbase hit 1.8 billion in net revenue, 9-times-over from the year before.