Intel, the computer processor giant and world’s largest semiconductor manufacturer, disclosed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today that it has purchased 3,014 shares in cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, which went public in April.
The shares are worth about $787,000 as of this writing, based on the current Coinbase (COIN) stock price of $261.25 per share. Intel’s disclosure notes that the shares were purchased before the end of June.
Barron’s reports that Intel could have acquired the shares before Coinbase’s direct listing began in April, but since the stake in the crypto exchange is so small (by corporate standards), it’s well under the 5% threshold that would require Coinbase to report it when going public. Intel disclosed the investment to the SEC as it holds more than $100 million in total investments as a public company.
Intel’s investment in Coinbase is an apparent bet on the future of the cryptocurrency market, as the exchange’s fortunes tend to fall in line with those of the crypto market. Coinbase went public in April when the market was soaring to all-time heights, but the stock price sank well below the original $250 reference price when Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other top coins tanked in mid-May.
With the crypto market back on an upswing in recent weeks, Coinbase’s stock price is likewise on the rise. It traded at a recent low of just above $220 per share as of July 19, but is worth nearly 19% more as of the close of business today. Even so, Coinbase’s stock price is still well below the opening day high of nearly $430, when investors were in a feeding frenzy.
Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest is the single largest institutional owner of Coinbase shares since the exchange went public. According to CNN, ARK Investment Management owns more than 5.6 million shares in Coinbase at a current value of more than $1.3 billion. Its ARK Innovation ETF owns another chunk of shares, nearly 4.26 million of them, which are worth just over $1 billion as of this writing.
Coinbase’s stock briefly popped above $290 per share this week when the firm reported record earnings for Q2, notching just over $1.6 billion in profit—almost double its Q1 mark. Coinbase’s monthly transacting users (MTU) grew 44% from Q1 to Q2 to 8.8 million, and the firm now has 68 million verified users on the platform.
