Carol Alexander, Professor of Finance and leader of the Quantitative FinTech (QFIN) research group, has been at the forefront of expert responses to the public listing of Coinbase on the stock market.

Coinbase, the only crypto exchange that is regulated in the US, was listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange on 14^th April, becoming the first major digital currency platform to go public in the US.

Speaking on CNBC, Professor Alexander explained that Coinbase has ‘no real competitor’ on the centralised exchanges, because of its close relationship to regulators, best practice operational risk management, high trading volumes and relatively secure reputation.

Established in 2012, the company has grown rapidly over recent years, and now operates the largest US cryptocurrency exchange, holding digital assets for over 56 million users. Its direct listing last week valued the company at anything between $60 billion and $100 billion.

The public listing of the company has been described as a watershed moment, bringing the complex world of cryptocurrencies into the mainstream. But Prof Alexander warned that large US investors will hold off investing until the inevitable volatility that surrounds a direct listing subsides.

“There’s been this revolution going on very, very quietly and now the lid has been taken off,” she said, as dogecoin bucked the recent fall in crypto assets to make 6000% gains on another spate of Elon Musk tweets – today becoming the coin with the highest trading volume, second only to bitcoin. However, Coinbase does not list dogecoin. Indeed, Prof Alexander says it needs to greatly expand its provision of coins and tokens as demand rises from US consumers. 

“Coinbase is also not a derivatives exchange. Crypto derivatives include new products that don’t exist in standard markets, and they trade in diverse, unregulated venues both off-chain (like Binance) and on-chain (like Uniswap).

“It is a highly complex and completely new world, but there’s nothing stopping it now. Too few people understand blockchains and crypto. That’s why the University of Sussex Business School introduced this to our undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum more than three years ago.”

Follow Carol’s webinar about Trading Crypto Assets and Derivatives, 8pm UK on Monday 19 April.