Goldman Sachs turns bullish on Coinbase, upgrades COIN to ‘buy’ rating

Coinbase shares were up on Monday, Jan. 5, gaining as much as 8% in intraday trading, after Goldman Sachs upgraded their rating for COIN from “neutral” to “buy.”

Summary

• Coinbase shares jumped as much as 8% after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to a buy rating.
• Goldman cited Coinbase’s focus on infrastructure-driven businesses beyond trading as a key reason for the upgrade.

As highlighted by VanEck’s Head of Digital Asset Research, Matthew Sigel, the investment bank said it holds “selective optimism” toward structurally growing, infrastructure-facing brokers in the US and singled out Coinbase as a leader in that category.

Over the past years, Goldman Sachs’ rating on Coinbase has varied from lows during the crypto winter to more constructive views as market conditions improved. Between mid-2022 and the end of 2025, the firm’s stance fluctuated between “sell” and “neutral,” making this the first time Goldman has reinstated a “buy” rating since its initial coverage of Coinbase back in 2021.

Not only that, but Goldman has also raised its 12-month price target for the stock, bumping the target for COIN from $294 to $303 per share. At current prices, that would represent a rally of roughly 18%.

At press time, COIN was changing hands at $254.92, with gains of 7.77% on Jan. 5. The stock is now up nearly 11% year to date.

According to Goldman Sachs analyst James Yaro, the rating was influenced by the bank’s view that infrastructure-heavy firms like Coinbase, which are working on products beyond trading, hold strong growth potential in the coming cycle.

However, the bank is optimistic about the digital asset space in general, as it hopes that adoption will continue as a byproduct of ongoing regulatory developments in the US.

“Our base case includes further crypto regulatory reform, catalyzing further broad-based crypto adoption, and use cases beyond crypto trading, most importantly among institutions, whose adoption thus far has been limited,” Yaro said.

Coinbase expands its operations

Coinbase has stepped up its efforts and moved closer to its goal of becoming the “everything exchange” by launching new products across multiple sectors.

Last month, Coinbase integrated the regulated prediction market Kalshi to offer event contracts directly on the Coinbase app. At the same time, it started the phased rollout of its commission-free stock and ETF trading platform, alongside commerce-focused initiatives like Coinbase Business.

Coinbase was also accelerating its expansion efforts in Asia and the Middle East at the time. After formally reopening operations in India following a two-year regulatory pause, Coinbase received the green light from Indian competition regulators regarding its move to acquire a minority stake in CoinDCX.

Outside of its expansion efforts, 2025 was also a breakout year for the crypto exchange, as evidenced by its third-quarter earnings report that surpassed analyst expectations. In terms of total revenue, the numbers were up 25% from the previous quarter and marked a 55% increase year over year.

However, for Q4, Wall Street analysts expect the company to report earnings of approximately $1.08 to $1.16 per share on forecasted revenues of about $1.95 billion, which would represent a year-over-year decline in earnings compared to 2024 numbers.

This may be grounded in the overall poor performance of the crypto space that has persisted since mid-October.