While JPMorgan has raised its price target for Coinbase shares, the bank also believes that a BASE token could reach a market capitalization of $34 billion. Let’s take a look at these forecasts.
JPMorgan expresses optimism for Coinbase’s crypto ecosystem
In a note published last week, JPMorgan expressed its enthusiasm for Coinbase, as well as for its future BASE token for Ethereum’s (ETH) layer 2 of the same name.
As a reminder, the famous cryptocurrency platform confirmed in mid-September that it was indeed studying the issue of a native token on Base. While this has yet to be finalized, the American bank sees this as an opportunity for long-term capitalization of $12 to $34 billion:
Given the total value locked (TVL) and revenues, we believe a market capitalization of $12 billion to $34 billion is reasonable in the long term. We believe that the majority of Base tokens would be distributed to developers, validators, and the Base community, but that Coinbase would retain a portion. We estimate that the Base token could generate $4 billion to $12 billion for Coinbase over time.
At the time of writing, Base is indeed the largest Ethereum layer 2 in terms of TVL, according to data from DefiLlama, with $5.39 billion and 752 applications listed.
Taking the upper end of this estimate, $34 billion currently represents 37.33% of Coinbase’s $91.07 billion market capitalization. However, this comparison is limited, as the company would not hold the entire supply of a potential BASE token.
Regarding Coinbase’s stock market activity, JPMorgan has also raised its recommendation on COIN stock to “Overweight”:
We are upgrading Coinbase to Overweight as we anticipate further monetization opportunities and reduced risks, at a valuation we believe is attractive relative to its cryptocurrency peers.
This optimistic bias is justified by two factors: “ongoing experimentation with USDC payments,” which is likely to increase profits, and work on a BASE token that we have just developed.
As a result, the bank’s analysts are forecasting a share price of $404 by December 2026, while the stock is currently trading at $354.46. JPMorgan’s forecasts helped COIN shares rise 9.82% on Friday.
After reaching an all-time high (ATH) of $444.65 on July 18, the stock is now trading down just over 20%:
While analysts are generally optimistic, it should be noted that JPMorgan’s price target seems relatively reasonable, given that it remains below the latest ATH. However, it is likely that we will be in the midst of a bear market in December 2026, and this assumption could therefore tip the balance.
