Shares of crypto broker Coinbase climbed Tuesday, even as the broader digital-asset complex was sluggish following a listless weekend’s trading for crypto.
At last check, Coinbase shares
COIN,
were up by about 2% as the U.S.’s largest crypto platform said that it had forged an agreement with Apple Inc.
AAPL,
and Google
GOOG,
GOOGL,
mobile payment networks, whereby U.S. customers can now use its branded debit card in Google and Apple wallet applications for payments.
Coinbase said that it will automatically convert all cryptocurrency to U.S. dollars
DXY,
and transfer the funds to a customer’s Coinbase cards for purchases and withdrawals, as well as provide rewards in crypto.
The crypto platform, which went public in mid-April, kicked off its debit card in the U.S. during the fall of 2020, a debit Visa card. The company launched a debit card in Europe and the U.K. in 2019.
Coinbase’s debit card has been supported by Google Pay in Europe since March 2020.
“Mobile phone payments are growing steadily in the US, up 29% in 2020,” Coinbase wrote on its blog Tuesday.
Shares of Coinbase are down over 26% since the company listed on the Nasdaq Inc. on April 14.
Meanwhile, the broader crypto market was mixed, with bitcoin
BTCUSD,
changing hands at $36,133.75, down 2% on CoinDesk. Ether on the Ethereum blockchain
ETHUSD,
the world’s second-largest crypto by market value, was down 1.8% at around $2,560.
Traditional markets also were trading mixed, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
nursing a slight gain, while the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
S&P 500
SPX,
indexes were trading lower.