After surging to an annual high of $187 per share during the final days of 2023, Coinbase has dropped by 20% amid bitcoin's price whipsawing, according to TradingView.

With the hope that spot bitcoin ETFs will eventually be approved — and spur an influx of institutional capital flowing into the digital asset — the price of the world's most popular cryptocurrency by market capitalization had been steadily increasing, reaching nearly $46,000 on Tuesday. Yet bitcoin's price dropped suddenly on Wednesday to trade at $42,205 as of 10:00 a.m. EST.

Coinbase shares also slipped on Wednesday to below $150 per share in early trading, a decline of about 5%. The U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange, which is up by more than 300% in the last year, is set to custody assets for traditional financial institutions like BlackRock, which is one of the many companies to have filed for sport bitcoin ETFs.

Coinbase shares. Image: TradingView.

Mounting anticipation

Although the approval of spot bitcoin ETFs has largely been viewed as only a matter of time, the anticipation of when the Securities and Exchange Commission might do so continues to heavily influence the entire crypto industry. Investment bank TD Cowen said on Tuesday the SEC will approve a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund by the Jan. 10 deadline as a "political necessity" while other analysts have offered a more negative outlook.

Meanwhile, Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest has offloaded $200 million in Coinbase shares in recent weeks. The company maintains a market capitalization of about $36 billion, according to TradingView.