New York, Jan 5, 2026, 11:57 EST — Regular session
- Coinbase rose more than 7% after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to “buy”.
- Bitcoin’s rebound lifted crypto-exposed equities, including Coinbase and Robinhood.
- Focus now shifts to U.S. jobs data this week and Coinbase’s next earnings update in February.
Coinbase Global (COIN.O) shares rose about 7% to $253.63 in late-morning trade on Monday after a Goldman Sachs upgrade put the crypto exchange back on traders’ buy lists.
The call matters now because crypto-linked stocks are moving with a fresh leg higher in bitcoin, and investors have been looking for reasons to own the larger “picks-and-shovels” names rather than smaller, more volatile plays.
For Coinbase, the immediate question is whether the company can keep shifting its business mix toward steadier revenue streams as crypto trading ebbs and flows with price swings and risk appetite.
Goldman upgraded Coinbase to “buy” from “neutral” and lifted its price target to $303 from $294, arguing the firm is leaning harder into “crypto infrastructure” — services such as custody (holding assets for clients), staking (earning rewards for helping secure a blockchain), and compliance tools — that generate fees even when trading slows, Investing.com reported. 1
Goldman analyst James Yaro said Coinbase’s newer offerings “give it exposure to what we view as structural growth tokenization and prediction markets,” according to TipRanks. Tokenization refers to putting traditional assets into blockchain-based tokens that can be traded and settled more efficiently. 2
The broader tape helped. Bitcoin was up about 2.6% at roughly $93,691, while ether rose about 1.4% to $3,182. Crypto-exposed stocks moved with them, with Robinhood up about 6%, Strategy up about 4% and Riot Platforms up about 3%.
After Monday’s jump, Goldman’s $303 target sits closer to the market. Based on Friday’s close, it implied a much wider gap, and that narrowing is part of what traders will test over the next few sessions.
The risk is that Coinbase remains tethered to crypto volatility. A sharp pullback in bitcoin can cool retail activity and compress transaction revenue, while regulation and competition from mainstream brokers can shift volume faster than Wall Street models predict.
Next up, traders will watch Friday’s U.S. nonfarm payrolls report (Jan. 9) for clues on the path for interest rates — a key driver for risk assets — and look toward Coinbase’s next quarterly report, which Nasdaq estimates will land around Feb. 12. 3
