What happened
Shares of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global (COIN 1.63%) were surging Monday morning as the prices of Bitcoin (BTC 2.04%) and other cryptocurrencies are rising. Coinbase stock jumped almost 4% early Monday, and remained up 2.8% as of 10:25 a.m. EDT.
So what
Coinbase itself has helped the price of Bitcoin rise to its highest level in over three months, above $50,000 per token. That, in turn, seems to be feeding the positive move in shares of Coinbase. The exchange announced last week through a statement on Twitter that its board of directors has approved adding $500 million in cryptocurrencies to its balance sheet.
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Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong also said in the tweet: "We'll be investing 10% of all profit going forward in crypto. I expect this percentage to keep growing over time as the cryptoeconomy matures."
Now what
In a company blog post, Coinbase said those investments will include "Ethereum, Proof of Stake assets, [decentralized finance] tokens, and many other crypto assets supported for trading on our platform, in addition to Bitcoin."
The price of Bitcoin has risen more than 10% since Coinbase made those announcements late last week. But that's only a portion of the 50% gain it has had in the past month. Coinbase shares had already traded in tandem with cryptocurrency prices in large part. Now that it is not just an exchange for the asset, but also a meaningful holder, investors should expect those prices to continue to move somewhat in parallel.
