New York, January 8, 2026, 19:48 EST — After-hours
Coinbase Global, Inc. (COIN) saw its shares slip 0.1% to $245.59 in after-hours trading on Thursday, following Bank of America’s upgrade to “buy.” The firm maintained its $340 price target. Earlier in the day, the stock fluctuated between $242.50 and $251.33. BofA analyst Craig Siegenthaler noted he turned positive “post 2H product velocity acceleration and stock pullback.” Investing.com Canada
The upgrade comes as investors wrestle with whether Coinbase can prove itself beyond just a high-beta stand-in for crypto prices. Trading fees are known to fluctuate sharply alongside bitcoin and shifts in retail risk appetite.
The bigger question now is whether Coinbase can generate steadier revenue from new products and infrastructure, beyond just spot trading. Tokenization — the process of turning an asset into a blockchain-based token — is one of the key ideas, but it still lacks clear rules and widespread adoption.
A securities filing revealed that CEO Brian Armstrong exercised options to purchase 40,000 shares on Jan. 5, then quickly sold the same amount at roughly $248 to $250 each. This left him holding no Class A shares directly. The transactions happened under a Rule 10b5-1 plan, which allows sales to be scheduled ahead of time.
Coinbase has been setting the stage for a wider range of products. In a December update, the company revealed it had started offering zero-commission stock trading for U.S. users in its main app, available 24 hours a day, five days a week. It also kicked off prediction markets in the U.S., with order flow coming from Kalshi at launch. On top of that, Coinbase shared plans for an institutional tokenization platform called Coinbase Tokenize and noted that the Base App is now accessible in more than 140 countries.
Crypto prices showed a mixed bag on Thursday, a pattern that often spills over into Coinbase’s trading, even as analysts adjust their views. Bitcoin held steady near $91,206, while ether dipped roughly 1.7%.
Not everyone is convinced. Barclays kept its “equal-weight” rating on Coinbase Thursday, but dropped the price target to $258 from $291, according to Benzinga‘s analyst ratings data.
But these new lines of business bring their own headaches — from navigating the legal maze around tokenized equities and event contracts to wondering if users will stay once the excitement wears off. A drop in crypto prices could still slam trading volumes fast, and those fees continue to play a big role.
Next week’s policy agenda takes center stage: the Senate Agriculture Committee will vote on a digital commodities bill on Jan. 15, while the Senate Banking Committee aims to review the securities section that same day, Bloomberg Law reported. Coinbase has yet to announce the date for its upcoming quarterly report, though Nasdaq data points to Feb. 12.
