Bitcoin price latest – Coinbase makes splash on market debut with $99.6 BILLION valuation

HOW DOES COINBASE MAKE MONEY?

Coinbase earns money from transaction fees and has seen it’s profits boom during the pandemic.

“The coinbase IPO is potentially a watershed event for the crypto industry and will be something the Street will be laser focused on to gauge investor appetite,” said Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives in a note to investors.

The company is a “foundational piece of the crypto ecosystem,” he said.

Coinbase was founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong, a software engineer at Airbnb, and Fred Ehrsam, a trader at Goldman Sachs.

COINBASE WORTH MORE THAN TRADITIONAL BANKS

Coinbase shares opened at $381 (£276) on the Nasdaq, racing past the $250 reference price, and valuing the exchange at $99.6bn (£72bn).

The cryptocurrency exchange is also worth more than HSBC, Barclays and Standard Chartered.

It has been cited as a ‘landmark moment’ for digital currencies.

VIRTUAL WALLET

If you have invested in Bitcoin, you can set up a virtual wallet to store, keep track and spend your digital money.

You are also able to purchase Bitcoin through an online exchange or Bitcoin ATM –  but not all businesses accept Bitcoin as a form of payment.

You can use the Where To Spend Bitcoin UK website to find merchants that accept the currency.

COINBASE VALUED AT $86 BILLION IN ‘LANDMARK MOMENT’

The first major cryptocurrency company to list its shares on a U.S. stock exchange is now valued at $86 billion.

It began trading on Wednesday afternoon, starting with $381 a share. The stock then dropped as low as $310 and then as high as $429 and ended the day at $328.28.

HOW DO I BUY BITCOIN?

Several marketplaces called “Bitcoin exchanges” allow people to buy or sell Bitcoins using different currencies.

People can also send Bitcoins to each other using mobile apps or their computers in the same way people send cash digitally.

The value of Bitcoin, like all currencies, is determined by how much people are willing to exchange it for.

The value of Bitcoin has fluctuated wildly since it was introduced.

CAN YOU LOSE MONEY THROUGH BITCOIN?

In January 9, 2018, Bitcoin and other major currencies crashed by £120billion after major monitoring platform CoinmarketCap decided to leave out the trading prices from South Korea.

Cryptocurrencies themselves are only regulated in the UK for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing.

If you decide to invest, your money won’t be covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) which protects up to £85,000 of your savings if a firm goes bust.

You also typically won’t have access to the free Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) if something goes wrong.

But firms offering cryptoassets must now be registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and anyone who does invest in cryptocurrencies should check before investing.

WHAT IS COINBASE?

Coinbase is an American cryptocurrency exchange platform, and customers can buy and sell around 50 cryptocurrencies on its site, including bitcoin.

The company was founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam.

As of March 2021, Coinbase was the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US by trading volume.

WHAT IS BITCOIN?

Bitcoin is a virtual currency that was created in 2009 by an unknown computer whizz using the alias Satoshi Nakamoto.

Unlike physical currencies such as pounds, dollars or euros, which come in physical notes and coins, Bitcoin isn’t printed or minted.

Instead, Bitcoin tokens are a digital-only form of payment and are created by a computer code.

If you have invested in Bitcoin, you can set up a virtual wallet to store, keep track and spend your digital money.

DOGECOIN SOARS TO ALL-TIME HIGH

Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency essentially based on a meme, surged in price today and got a boost from Tesla CEO Elon Musk when the tech founder tweeted a gif of the dog featured in the meme.

The virtual currency surpassed 10 cents for the first time in the last 24 hours, and currently sits at about 13 cents.

Musk, 49, tweeted a gif of a Shiba Inu dog — the “face” of the cryptocurrency — early this morning, causing its value to spike further. In the past, the SpaceX founder has posted about Dogecoin and its value increased.

The virtual “money” started as an internet parody more than seven years ago, according to CNN, but has since become a legitimate digital currency.

VIRTUAL WALLET

If you have invested in Bitcoin, you can set up a virtual wallet to store, keep track and spend your digital money.

You are also able to purchase Bitcoin through an online exchange or Bitcoin ATM –  but not all businesses accept Bitcoin as a form of payment.

You can use the Where To Spend Bitcoin UK website to find merchants that accept the currency.

MYSTERY BITCOIN CREATOR WORTH $60BILLION

The pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin is now one of the world’s richest people.

Based on their estimated holdings of the cryptocurrency, Satoshi Nakamoto is believed to be worth over $60billion (£44billion) today.

That would make them the 19th-wealthiest person alive, according to Forbes’ recently updated list of the world’s richest billionaires.

Bitcoin was the first decentralised currency – a digital currency created or “mined” using complex calculations carried out by computers.

It was created in 2009 by an unidentified coder known only as Satoshi Nakamoto.

They’re believed to own about one million Bitcoin, which is roughly five per cent of the total supply that will ever be created.

CRYPTOCURRENCY WORTH MORE THAN APPLE

The cryptocurrency market is now worth more than the world’s most valuable company.

The combined total of all the crytocurrencies overtook Apple this morning as record-breaking price rallies for bitcoin, ethereum (ether) and dogecoin.

They all pushed the cryptocurrency market above $2.2 trillion – $10 billion above Apple’s market cap.

WHAT IS DOGECOIN?

Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency which was launched in 2013.

Originally invented as a joke by software engineers Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus, the Dogecoin has the image of a Shuba Inu dog as its logo.

It has been marketed as the “fun” version of bitcoin.

Two weeks after its launch, the value of it jumped 300% after China banned banks from investing in cryptocurrencies, according to Investopedia.

Dogecoin then skyrocketed alongside other cryptos during the bubble that peaked in 2017, and it fell with the rest of them over 2018.

On April 13, it reached its highest value yet of $0.09518 per coin, according to crypto data firm CoinMarketCap.

MUSK BE LOVE

Tesla boss Elon Musk said his car firm has bought $1.5billion of Bitcoin and said his business would accept them as payment for its cars.

Mastercard, meanwhile, said it would also start to allow payments in Bitcoin.

People considering investing in Bitcoin or shares and stocks have been warned over “risky” tips being shared on TikTok.

How risky is Ripple’s XRP? The dangers of buying the cryptocurrency explained.

The price of Dogecoin has also surged recently but again, you should be aware of the dangers.

ON THE RISE

Last year the currency was around the $23,000 mark before it moved up to around $36,000 in January.

Then in February the cryptocurrency soared to a new high of $50,000.

Last month, the currency reached a record of $61,742 and it is up almost ninefold in the past year.

The record price for Bitcoin came after large firms like Tesla, Mastercard and BNY Mellon started to show support for Bitcoin.

HOW DO I BUY BITCOIN?

Several marketplaces called “Bitcoin exchanges” allow people to buy or sell Bitcoins using different currencies.

People can also send Bitcoins to each other using mobile apps or their computers in the same way people send cash digitally.

The value of Bitcoin, like all currencies, is determined by how much people are willing to exchange it for.

The value of Bitcoin has fluctuated wildly since it was introduced.

WILD WEST

Cryptocurrencies themselves are only regulated in the UK for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing.

If you decide to invest, your money won’t be covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) which protects up to £85,000 of your savings if a firm goes bust.

You also typically won’t have access to the free Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) if something goes wrong.

IS BITCOIN SAFE?

Anyone thinking of investing in Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency should be very careful.

Their values are incredibly unpredictable, with the ability to plummet as quickly as they shoot up.

Like with all cryptocurrencies, this means if you choose to invest in Bitcoin, you can lose your money if the value of it drops.

For example, on January 9, 2018, Bitcoin and other major currencies crashed by £120billion after major monitoring platform CoinmarketCap decided to leave out the trading prices from South Korea

HOW MANY BITCOIN ARE THERE?

There are currently about 21 million Bitcoin tokens in existence.

To receive a Bitcoin, a user must have a Bitcoin address – a string of 27-34 letters and numbers – which acts as a kind of virtual postbox.

These addresses are in turn stored in Bitcoin wallets, which are used to manage savings.

The bulk of Bitcoin “mining” is done in China, where energy costs are cheaper than in places like the UK or US.

HOW DOES BITCOIN WORK?

To process Bitcoin transactions, a procedure called “mining” must take place, which involves a computer solving a difficult mathematical problem with a 64-digit solution.

For each problem solved, one block of Bitcoin is processed. In addition, the miner is rewarded with new Bitcoin.

To compensate for the growing power of computer chips, the difficulty of the puzzles is adjusted to ensure a steady stream of new Bitcoins are produced each day.

VIRTUAL WALLET

If you have invested in Bitcoin, you can set up a virtual wallet to store, keep track and spend your digital money.

You are also able to purchase Bitcoin through an online exchange or Bitcoin ATM –  but not all businesses accept Bitcoin as a form of payment.

You can use the Where To Spend Bitcoin UK website to find merchants that accept the currency.

WHAT IS BITCOIN?

Bitcoin is a virtual currency that was created in 2009 by an unknown computer whizz using the alias Satoshi Nakamoto.

Unlike physical currencies such as pounds, dollars or euros, which come in physical notes and coins, Bitcoin isn’t printed or minted.

Instead, Bitcoin tokens are a digital-only form of payment and are created by a computer code.

WHAT DOES A DIRECT LISTING MEAN?

A direct listing doesn’t allow the business to raise new funds, but it offers current shareholders the chance to sell their stocks on the market.

Music streaming site Spotify also chose this method when it went public in 2018.

Coinbase’s overall valuation will begin at $65.3billion, making it the biggest new US stock market entrant since Uber in 2019.

WHEN IS COINBASE GOING PUBLIC?

Coinbase is going public on the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York City today, April 14.

The company isn’t doing a traditional initial public offering (IPO), and will instead do a direct listing.

In a direct listing, a company floats its shares on a stock exchange, but without hiring banks to underwrite the transaction, like in an IPO.