New York, January 7, 2026, 18:07 EST — After-hours
- Coinbase shares fell in after-hours trade, tracking a slide in bitcoin.
- A Goldman Sachs upgrade this week has kept focus on Coinbase’s push beyond trading fees.
- Traders are watching crypto prices, U.S. rates and the next earnings date.
Coinbase Global shares slid 1.8% to $245.93 in after-hours trading on Wednesday, after ranging between $240.35 and $251.62. Bitcoin was down 2.6% at about $90,996.
Why this matters now: Coinbase often trades as a proxy for risk appetite in crypto, and bitcoin’s pullback has come alongside broader jitters in growth stocks. A softer tape can mean lower trading activity, which feeds straight into exchange revenue.
Goldman Sachs recently upgraded Coinbase to “buy” and lifted its price target to $303 from $294, arguing the company is shifting toward steadier “infrastructure” revenues such as custody and staking. “We expect the meeting of traditional retail brokerage and crypto trading to continue in 2026,” analyst James Yaro wrote, pointing to tokenization — putting traditional assets onto blockchains — and prediction markets as growth areas. MEXC
Coinbase’s stablecoin angle is also back in view after Barclays bought a stake in U.S.-based Ubyx, a stablecoin clearing system that has previously raised money from the venture arms of Coinbase and Galaxy Digital. Stablecoins are crypto tokens typically pegged one-for-one to currencies like the dollar and are widely used to move money within crypto markets.
Technicians have also turned wary. Investors.com flagged a “death cross” on Coinbase’s chart — when the 50-day moving average drops below the 200-day — a pattern some traders read as a sign of weakening momentum. Investors
Macro remains the wild card for crypto-linked stocks. The Federal Reserve’s next policy meeting is scheduled for Jan. 27-28, while traders also eye Thursday’s U.S. productivity and costs release.
But the setup can break either way. If crypto prices keep sliding or regulatory progress stalls, trading and fee income could soften, while competition from brokers and rival platforms risks pressuring prices and customer acquisition costs.
Next up, traders will track overnight moves in bitcoin and risk assets ahead of Thursday’s U.S. data, with Coinbase’s next earnings date still unconfirmed; MarketBeat’s calendar pegs it as Feb. 12 (estimated).
