Coinbase is the “natural repository of crypto,” according to Jim Cramer of CNBC’s Mad Money, who has suggested buying the stock.
CNBC’s “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer has advised investors to acquire Coinbase shares and to commit 5% of their investing portfolios to cryptocurrency.
Cramer made the remarks on Aug. 25 during the Lightning Round in response to a caller who inquired if buying Coinbase stock was a viable way to obtain cryptocurrency exposure. While Coinbase’s first public offering (IPO) went “very poorly,” the 66-year-old financial expert sees the company as a major player in the cryptocurrency space:
“I think Coinbase is inexpensive. I don’t really care for management because I think they let out a lot of stock when they started. I was against that. They should’ve been buyers, not sellers. I think the listing went very, very poorly. I think the company is the … natural repository of crypto.”
Since its first public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq stock exchange in mid-April, Coinbase Stock (COIN) has had a dismal performance. COIN is trading at $248 at the time of writing, down 27 percent from its all-time high of $340 reached on April 16.
However, the company had a remarkable success in the second quarter, with net earnings of $1.6 billion reported in its Q2 report, compared to $32 million in the same time in 2020.
Cramer went on to say that direct exposure to cryptocurrency should also be an option for investors, which he explained as follows:
“I own Ethereum directly. I think you should have up to 5% of your portfolio in crypto. I am a believer in crypto.”
She is a former hedge fund manager and co-founder of financial news website TheStreet.com, and she hosts a show on CNBC. While Cramer has maintained a somewhat stable position in Ethereum (ETH) in recent months, he has had an on-again, off-again relationship with digital gold since purchasing his first Bitcoin (BTC) in December of last year.
In fact, he can be found all around town. The crypto market was in the midst of a dip in June, and Cramer advised investors to be “patient” with Bitcoin. However, 10 days later, his patience had run out, and he brazenly asserted that Bitcoin is “not going up because of structural reasons,” and revealed:
“Sold almost all of my Bitcoin. Don’t need it.”
In March, Cramer exulted over the fact that Bitcoin had gained him a “ton of money,” but his investments in gold and stocks had disappointed him. In April, he revealed that he had cashed out 50% of his BTC, which he described as “phony money,” in order to pay off his mortgage.
On May 5, the Cointelegraph published a report. After first purchasing the asset in order to bid on a Time Magazine NFT, Cramer stated that he now possessed “a significant amount of Ether.”
