What should we make of the valuation of Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange listed on Nasdaq last week at $80 billion — three times the market value of Nasdaq itself? Coinbase’s stratospheric debut is clearly a reflection of the mania for bitcoin, currently trading at five times its price of six months ago. And that spike has in turn generated short-term profits for Coinbase, making it an attractive rarity among tech flotations that more often come to market long before they reach profit, which some never do.
But is there a deeper message? Some say this is crypto’s coming of age, coinciding as it does with Rishi Sunak’s announcement of a Treasury-Bank of England taskforce to explore potential for a ‘central bank digital currency’ harnessing crypto-technology. Akin to that, some crypto-maniacs deride Coinbase as a sell-out to the mainstream: an exchange that operates within Wall Street’s regulatory framework rather than shunning state-led financial systems in the libertarian spirit of bitcoin’s founding legend.
Cynics, meanwhile, watch the price graphs and predict an imminent bursting of the crypto-gambling bubble. To me, all this forms a vision of a virtual Las Vegas whose towers must one day fall, though perhaps not yet. The one thing to be said for investing in the likes of Coinbase is that it’s better to own a casino than to bet your savings on its tables and slot machines.
European Super farce
The European Super League proposal that imploded on Tuesday evening, with the withdrawal of all six English clubs involved, provoked fury from everyone in football who wasn’t set to gain from it, plus indignation from the Prime Minister and, reportedly, the Duke of Cambridge. But those of us who have long regarded the top end of the ‘beautiful game’ as a snake pit of grasping owners, overpaid players and dubious agents watched with wry amusement as this shameless money spinner fell apart.
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