In after-hours trading, Coinbase shares experienced a nearly 4% increase in value, despite encountering yet another day of platform disruptions and display glitches due to a surge in website traffic. The uptick in Coinbase shares on March 4 marked the highest price point in over two years, with a notable 11% increase during regular trading hours, reaching $229. Additionally, the shares continued their ascent, rising by 3.8% in after-hours trading and peaking at $238, according to data from Google Finance. This price surge occurred despite ongoing issues on the Coinbase platform, where some users experienced difficulties loading the site or observing incorrect balance displays.
Coinbase acknowledged the platform issues about half an hour before the New York trading session concluded, stating that they had implemented a fix to address the latency issues and improve site performance. Despite reassurances from the exchange that user funds remained safe, some users encountered intermittent displays of zero balances during the trading day. Notably, similar problems had occurred on February 28, prompting swift action from Coinbase to rectify issues related to user transactions.
Following the Coinbase outage on February 28, investment research firm Citron, led by Wall Street short seller Andrew Left, advocated for a short sale of Coinbase stock, labeling it as one of the most prominent trades in the cryptocurrency market. Meanwhile, the value of Bitcoin, one of the most widely traded cryptocurrencies, surged over 7.8% in the past 24 hours, nearing a new 2021 all-time high of nearly $69,000. Moreover, U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded the second-highest daily trading volume, reaching around $5.5 billion, with Fidelity's ETF witnessing record net inflows of $404.6 million.
Bitcoin-focused companies also experienced notable gains, with MicroStrategy closing the day 23.5% higher at over $1,330. This price level has not been seen since the dot-com bubble in 2000, indicating a resurgence in investor interest in Bitcoin-related stocks. Additionally, highly speculative memecoins, such as Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, saw triple-digit percentage increases over the past seven days, highlighting renewed enthusiasm for such assets within the cryptocurrency market.
