THE world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange is preparing a $100 billion debut on the NASDAQ sending the price of coins surging.
Coinbase, which crypto fans use to buy and sell their currency, has been valued at $250 per share, giving it a market value of around $47 billion.
But major listing like Coinbase usually open significantly above their reference price with speculation that a $100 billion value is more realistic.
Coinbase’s Nasdaq debut helped send the price of Bitcoin surging too, with the cyptocurrency currently sitting at a record high of $64,000 per coin – a staggering 3% rise in just 24 hours.
It comes as 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.
Read our cyptocurrency live blog below for the very latest updates…
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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MASSIVE NUMBERS
Coinbase says it has more than 56million verified users across 100 countries.
The company has benefited from bitcoin’s rise in value, which has rocketed by 1,000% over the past year and hit a new record high yesterday.
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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.
