Shares in US crypto exchange platform Coinbase have continued to rise in after hours trading after it announced its first quarterly profit since 2021.
The stock was up 3.3 per cent on Friday morning as investors continued to cheer the company’s profit of $273.4m (£217.3m), or $1.04 per share, for the quarter ending December.
Coinbase shares had jumped nearly 13 per cent after trading hours following its surprise profit which beat analyst consensus estimates of a loss of 1 cent per share, according to LSEG data.
It thanked robust trading volumes driven by renewed interest in cryptocurrency for the significant turnaround from the $557m (£442.7m) loss it reported in the same period a year earlier.
Investor sentiment towards cryptocurrency has been reignited in recent months following the approval by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the first spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
This approval contributed to a 57 per cent surge in bitcoin’s price in the final quarter of 2023, which helped Coinbase’s transaction revenue hit $529.3m in the fourth quarter, a 64 per cent rise.
The multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency exchange is currently eyeing international expansion after appointing former Chancellor George Osborne to Coinbase’s global advisory council in January.