Coinbase Will Be Preferred Crypto Investing Play, Cramer Says

Jim Cramer appeared on CNBC’s "Market Alert" Wednesday morning to weigh in on Coinbase Global, Inc. COIN ahead of its direct listing on the Nasdaq.

Coinbase's direct listing was priced at $250; the stock opened at $381 and closed at $328.28 Wednesday. 

“The $250 reference price is a joke, it doesn’t reference anything,” Cramer said earlier Wednesday, hinting that the value of the stock when it became publicly traded would be double the reference price.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if it only gets to $600, that’s Lisa Ellis’ target, and she’s been spot-on on everything crypto.”

Cramer has some ideas about how Bitcoin BTC/USD will be traded in the future, and said that Coinbase will steal the share of wallet that Square now uses to hold Bitcoin. 

When people want to invest in crypto in the future, they won’t be buying the currencies themselves, Cramer said: they will buy shares of Coinbase.

Related Link: Who Are Coinbase's Competitors?

Coinbase CEO Speaks Ahead Of Listing: Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, also appeared Wednesday morning on "Squawk on the Street," where he spoke about growth with regard to institutional investors on the platform.

“This business is a lot newer for us than our retail business, and we’re still early in our process of monetizing the institutional customer segment,” Armstrong said.

“But zooming out from a macro perspective, the majority of money in the world is tied up in institutions, so we expect that business to be really big over time.”

Related Link: Coinbase Shares Open At $381, $100B Valuation On Debut