Coinbase Global (NASDAQ: COIN) closed at $136.82 on Thursday, down 9.69% from the prior close of $151.50, after touching an intraday low of $133.50, a fresh 52-week low for the stock. Volume had already passed 4.7 million shares by the time COIN traded near $138.59. The crypto exchange went public on the Nasdaq in April 2021.

The decline came amid a broad equity selloff. The Nasdaq Composite fell 5.52%, its worst single day since April 2025, according to CNN. The S&P 500 lost 4.36%, and the Dow dropped 3.44%. Coinbase's own percentage decline outpaced all three benchmarks. Crypto markets were under pressure as well: Bitcoin slid 5.8% over 24 hours to $75,908, and Ethereum fell 8.2% to $2,234.

Ark Invest Takes the Other Side

Cathie Wood's Ark Invest moved against the selloff. Through its Ark Innovation ETF, the firm bought 17,806 Coinbase shares, worth $2.44 million.

At the same time, Ark trimmed two other crypto-related positions. It sold 109,522 Bullish shares, valued at $2.27 million, and 119,841 Bitmine shares, valued at $2.28 million. Bullish fell 10.46% on the day, while Bitmine dropped 12.56%. Taken together, the day's moves amounted to a rotation within crypto-linked names rather than an exit from the sector.

The firm also added to AI and space-related names. It purchased 252,592 Nvidia shares worth $45.9 million and 48,984 AMD shares worth $19.8 million, along with 393,774 SpaceX shares worth $48.7 million — the fund's three largest dollar purchases of the session. AI stocks took the hardest hit, as the Democrats' midterm win stirred worries about slower AI development. Nvidia fell 9.26%, and AMD dropped 17.26%.

Wall Street Is Split on Coinbase

Analyst sentiment on Coinbase is divided. Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to Underweight on Monday, cutting its price target to $120 from $258 and citing weaker confidence in an earnings recovery.

Others remain less cautious. Cantor Fitzgerald kept an Overweight rating with a $212 target, while Keefe, Bruyette & Woods maintained an Outperform rating but trimmed its target to $221 from $237. That leaves a spread of more than $100 between the street's lowest and highest targets. According to MarketBeat, Coinbase carries 20 Buy ratings, 12 Hold ratings, and 4 Sell ratings, with an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $210.97 — roughly 54% above Thursday's close. The stock's 50-day moving average sits at $177.37, about 30% above the current price, and it carries a beta of 3.35, a measure of how sharply a stock tends to move relative to the broader market.

Insiders sold at much higher prices in recent weeks. Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas sold 39,030 shares at $205.24 on Sept. 21, and director Marc Andreessen sold 6,838 shares at $198 on Oct. 2. Both sales were executed under pre-arranged 10b5-1 plans, which are scheduled in advance and execute on a fixed timeline regardless of market conditions. In total, insiders sold 92,120 shares over the last 90 days, valued at approximately $17.97 million.

Regulatory Picture Remains Mixed

New Jersey dropped its lawsuit over Coinbase's staking program and lifted its cease-and-desist order, though disputes remain in four other states, leaving staking an open question across multiple jurisdictions. Separately, a federal appeals court declined to pause New York and Connecticut actions tied to Coinbase's prediction-market business, keeping that newer product line under active scrutiny in both states.

Coinbase also stated that the recent Binance hack did not affect the company, noting that it keeps more than 99% of customer crypto offline in cold storage, a setup designed to keep funds out of reach of online attackers.

Selloff Spreads to Asia

The selling extended into Asian markets on Friday. South Korea's Kospi was down 3.6% around noon after a drop of nearly 9% triggered a brief trading halt, and Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 5.3% in the morning session.