We recently compiled a list of the 8 Best Cryptocurrency Exchanges and Apps in 2024 and in this article we will look at the top exchange.
Despite the lack of confidence in the cryptocurrency market from many financial experts and investors, Bitcoin has been the best-performing asset class in four of the last five years. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved spot Bitcoin ETFs on January 11 and since then, Bitcoin value has grown by over 52% year-to-date, as of June 6. While the cryptocurrency experienced some volatility during this period, the SEC’s approval of spot Ethereum ETFs has been a breath of fresh air for these digital assets. Vaneck was the first applicant to spot Ethereum ETF. The firm’s CEO, Jan Van Eck is highly bullish on cryptocurrencies and his firm actively contributes toward the development of the Bitcoin ecosystem. On January 10, Jan Van Eck wrote:
“We at VanEck are not tourists to Bitcoin. For seven years—since 2017—we have been advocating for the approval of an ETF for investors to gain bitcoin exposure without the need for self-custody. In anticipation of this day, we have focused on educating the market through breakfast seminars in our midtown office, research papers, one-on-one meetings and more. We want clients to be as prepared as we are.
Neither have we badmouthed the concept of decentralized, opensource software. Bitcoin and blockchain technology are public goods. That’s why we’re donating 5% of our profits to Bitcoin core developers.”
Given the challenges and volatility of Bitcoin investment, VanEck advises investors to dollar cost average and “Hold On for Dear Life.”
Performance Since Bitcoin Halving
We previously explained Bitcoin Halving in our article about 11 Crypto Stocks with Biggest Upside, an event that takes place every four years or every time 210,000 blocks are added to the chain. The event has been historically seen to bring significant volatility in the crypto market but Bitcoin has been seen to realize exceptional gains shortly after the halving. After one year of the first halving, Bitcoin gained nearly 8000% in value, over 260% after the first year of the second halving, and approximately 600% after the third. Since the fourth halving on April 19, 2024, Bitcoin’s value is up by nearly 11%, as of June 6. The Bitcoin ETFs are also performing similarly well as BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF and Cathie Wood’s ARK Bitcoin ETF are both up over 50% year-to-date and over 10% since the fourth halving event.
Cathie Wood’s favorite cryptocurrency stock, Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) has also performed remarkably in the current year. The stock is up over 60% year-to-date, as of June 6, and is over 19% higher since the halving. Hedge funds were also quite bullish on the stock and it is a part of 48 portfolios as of March 31, compared to 41 in the fourth quarter of 2023. It operates one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world and is the only notable publicly traded crypto trading platform. Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) has a significant competitive advantage in the market over its peers as it has built a leading institutional-grade custody service over the last 12 years and has been chosen as the custodian for eight out of eleven spot bitcoin ETF mandates.
Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) showed strong financial performance in its first quarter of 2024. The company posted an EPS of $4.40, outperforming its estimates of $1.07 by a huge margin. Q1 total revenue grew by 72% quarter-over-quarter to $1.6 billion with adjusted EBITDA at $1 billion. Coinbase Global, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:COIN) liquidity remained strong with $7.1 billion in USD resources and $330 billion in customer-safeguarded assets. The company’s transaction revenue also grew by 103% sequentially to $1.1 billion, which was mainly driven by higher crypto asset volatility.
At the company’s Q1 2024 earnings call, Coinbase Global, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:COIN) chief operating officer, Emilie Choi made the following comments on the net revenue impact from the spot ETFs:
“…the ETFs unlocked a flywheel of customer engagement across our Coinbase Prime product suite and we were excited to see 40% of institutional clients engaged with three or more products in Q1. We saw both direct and indirect revenue impacts from the ETFs. The direct impact is clear in our financials. We saw native unit inflows as the custodian for eight of eleven issuers. This supported growth in our assets under custody of 69% quarter-over-quarter to $171 billion as well as growth in our custodial fee revenue of 64% quarter-over-quarter to $32 million. We also saw strong growth in prime finance revenue, which contributed to interest and finance fee income being up 36% quarter-over-quarter.
On an indirect basis, in addition to Coinbase Prime reaching all-time highs in trading volume and number of active clients, we saw elevated trading activity across the board in Q1. We saw broad-based consumer growth in advanced and simple with consumer trading volume up 93% quarter-over-quarter, outperforming the U.S. spot market. We’ve long said that the ETFs would benefit the entire ecosystem and we’re thrilled to see that play out on our platform”.
On May 15, Bloomberg reported that Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) is targeting Australia’s self-managed pensions sector, which represents a significant portion of the country’s $2.5 trillion pension system. Approximately AU$1 billion (AU$1 = US$0.66) in crypto assets are held within these funds. The company aims to attract these investors with a tailored service, focusing on long-term holdings and potentially benefitting from the growing interest in crypto ETFs in Australia. Australia’s first Bitcoin ETF, Monochrome Bitcoin ETF (IBTC) began trading on June 4 on the Cboe Australia exchange.
Should you invest in Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) while it trades at 35 times its forward earnings on an adjusted basis? Over the past 8 quarters, COIN has delivered 6 EPS and revenue beats. Coinbase Global, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:COIN) EPS was $0.37 in 2023, down 107% year over year, but analysts anticipate the company to grow its EPS by 1,900% this year. The stock’s up 377% over the past 12 months and the Street-high 1-year target points to a further 86% upside.
Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) has several upcoming trends that could drive its growth. The group has continued to widen its moats in the crypto-ecosystem. The company’s Layer 2 solution, Base, is gaining traction and processed over twice the number of transactions as the entire Ethereum network on Layer 1, and that too at lower fees and confirmation times. Layer 2 has the potential to make making crypto transactions much faster and cheaper. Moreover, the company is also integrating USDC with Base which will allow for nearly free and instant cross-border payments. Management is focused on its Layer 2 solution due to its blockchain scaling capabilities and sees it broadening the use cases of crypto, similar to how the shift from dial-up modems to broadband increased internet access in the 2000s.
We think Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) is a young company with several trends that will drive it including widening moats, increased institutional capital inflows due to Bitcoin ETFs, a first-mover advantage in next-generation blockchain networks, and the rising adoption of crypto. The stock is currently trading at 35 times its earnings (230% premium to its sector PE of 10.6x) and 16 times its sales. These multiples may be justified if it beats analysts’ estimates this year and grows its earnings by 1,900% and revenue by 95%.
While COIN is an interesting stock to look more into, we also have a promising AI stock that you can explore. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than Nvidia but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
Galaxy Digital: Bitcoin Is a Sharpe Ratio Plus
According to a poll by CNBC, 68% of their financial advisors community were not likely to recommend crypto to clients in the next year, 24% were somewhat likely to recommend it, and only 8% answered they were highly likely to recommend crypto to their clients. On May 22, the digital assets-related capital market company, Galaxy Digital’s CEO, Michael Novogratz told CNBC that he sees these results as an opportunity for growth. He drew a parallel to Larry Fink’s transformation from a Bitcoin skeptic to a Bitcoin advocate and said that “you can find all kinds of quotes” from Fink from six years ago that he did not like the asset. Novogratz also highlighted the need for active selling in crypto, which is termed “orange pilling.” In simple terms, orange pilling means promoting Bitcoin adoption by educating people about it.
Novogratz pointed out that ETFs have helped educate sales forces in traditional finance about crypto. Instead of a few enthusiasts promoting crypto, large firms like Morgan Stanley are beginning to take on this role. Looking ahead, he predicted that if regulatory clarity improves and the Fed cuts rates, Bitcoin’s value will rise remarkably within a year. Moreover, Novogratz argues that numerous studies have shown that adding crypto to a portfolio can actually reduce its overall volatility while increasing returns. He advised financial advisors to involve their clients in cryptocurrency investments and allocate about 1.5% to 2% of their portfolios to crypto. He pointed out that even if the investment performs worse than the broader market, it won’t significantly affect the overall portfolio allocation. Novogratz said that Bitcoin is a “Sharpe Ratio Plus” to portfolios.
A close-up of a person’s hands holding cryptocurrency coins.
Our Methodology
For this article, we scoured through the internet for similar articles from other financial media websites and Reddit threads. We made a list of the 25 best crypto exchanges and apps in 2024 using the consensus opinion of both our sources but gave a higher priority to the latter. We further narrowed down our list to 8 crypto apps and exchanges that had the highest monthly trading volume as of May 2024 and listed them in ascending order of their volume. It is important to note that we skipped the exchanges that had allegedly faked their trading volumes in the past along with the ones that had many bad reviews from users.
At Insider Monkey we are obsessed with the stocks that hedge funds pile into. The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
The Best Cryptocurrency Exchange in 2024
1. Binance
Spot Trading Volume in May: $546.9 billion
Cryptocurrencies: 500+
Binance operates the largest crypto exchange in the world by volume and has over $132 billion in total assets. Binance Exchange has 169 million registered users in more than 180 countries. It is one of the best cryptocurrency exchanges and apps in 2024 and the exchange provides trading services for over 500 cryptocurrencies and offers 1,280 trading pairs. Binance mobile app is available for both iOS and Android, offering convenience to its users.
Through Binance Exchange, users can trade the different cryptocurrencies on spot and futures markets. The exchange charges a 0.1% fee for trading on the platform. Users praise the exchange for its simple interface, stable platform, seamless trading experiences, and highest volumes.
On June 6, Binance announced that it will be the first platform to list IO.NET (IO) and the token will start trading on June 11. Traders will be able to conduct pair trading with IO/BTC, IO/USDT, IO/BNB, IO/FDUSD, and IO/TRY trading pairs.
To explore other best cryptocurrency exchanges and apps, check out our detailed report on the 8 Best Cryptocurrency Exchanges and Apps in 2024.
If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than Micron but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure. None. This article is originally published on Insider Monkey.