BlockBeats News, June 17th - Benchmark reiterated its "Buy" rating on Coinbase (COIN) following a system update on Tuesday and maintained a $270 price target. Coinbase closed at $169.27 on Tuesday, with Benchmark's target price representing approximately 59.5% upside potential. Benchmark analyst Mark Palmer stated that Coinbase's update this time advanced its "everything exchange" strategy, covering tokenized US stocks, stocks and crypto options, pre-IPO perpetual futures, prediction markets, AI investment tools, custody payment infrastructure, and consumer financial products, among many other releases. Palmer said, "In our view, yesterday's update from the company provided the clearest evidence to date that it is rapidly transitioning from a cyclical crypto broker to an infrastructure platform connecting the emerging on-chain economy with the traditional economy."

Benchmark also noted that one of the most important aspects of Tuesday's release has regulatory implications. The firm mentioned that the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved Coinbase to operate as a regulated futures commission merchant last month, enabling it to offer global crypto perpetual futures and options access to US customers through the Dubai-based exchange Deribit, acquired last year for $2.9 billion.

Benchmark stated that this approval supports Coinbase's plan to integrate liquidity across jurisdictions, allowing US and international customers to access a wider range of products through a single market. The firm also mentioned that Coinbase further supported its shift from spot crypto trading to broader financial and on-chain infrastructure by expanding into new crypto binary contracts for the prediction market, launching Coinbase Advisor for US Coinbase One subscription users, and introducing infrastructure tools supporting AI agents and digital payments around Base.