The cryptocurrency market hasn’t been good to investors lately. Some have even called it “crypto winter,” and with good reason. In response, some exchanges have been turning to new measures to bring in revenue. Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN), one of the biggest names in exchanges around, recently did just that. Investors are marginally happy, as Coinbase stock is up in Thursday afternoon trading, but not that much.
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The latest development at Coinbase is a new Ethereum (ETH-USD) blockchain system. It’s still in fairly early stages, as the new network will get its own testnet coming up fairly soon. With the new testnet in place, it will be that much easier for developers to put together new applications, particularly those that don’t depend on centralized operations. Plus, it will also allow for some testing to make sure the new layer 2 network involved can successfully go live with as little incident as possible.
Already there’s been some positive reception; Cathie Wood’s funds have picked up a combined total of over 210,000 shares in Wednesday’s trading. However, some are questioning if Coinbase may be a little too late to the party, with several others already working on similar projects.
Wall Street, meanwhile, also faces internal conflict about the company. Right now, analyst consensus calls Coinbase a Hold, with eight Buys, eight Holds, and six Sells assigned in the past three months. In addition, Coinbase stock’s average price target of $59.05 gives it downside risk.
