Coinbase rebounds 10%, altcoins surge as SEC chair Atkins signals onchain support

Coinbase shares recovered 10 per cent from session lows on Friday as SEC Chair Paul Atkins signaled support for new rules around onchain trading and blockchain settlement infrastructure, lifting tokenization stocks and altcoins across the board.

Bitcoin held above $80,000 as stocks pushed to fresh record highs, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbing 2.2 per cent and the S&P 500 adding 0.85 per cent. The risk-on backdrop spilled deeper into crypto markets, with altcoins significantly outperforming bitcoin.

Solana rose around 5 per cent, while Near Protocol and Uniswap gained roughly 7 per cent. Internet Computer Protocol’s ICP jumped nearly 12 per cent, leading major tokens higher. Chainlink and SUI also advanced about 5 per cent.

SEC signals regulatory shift

The rally in crypto-linked equities gained momentum after Atkins said Friday that the agency is weighing new rulemaking around onchain trading systems, crypto custody infrastructure and blockchain-based settlement rails as finance increasingly converges with AI and distributed ledger technology.

Atkins also reiterated support for congressional efforts to advance crypto market structure legislation, which investors viewed as supportive for tokenization and blockchain-based financial infrastructure.

‘The theme drove gains in related equities,’ the report noted. Bullish, CoinDesk’s parent company that this week announced a deeper push into tokenization, rose 6 per cent. Digital asset infrastructure firm BitGo surged 10 per cent, while Cantor Equity Partners II, which plans to merge with BlackRock-backed tokenization firm Securitize, gained 4.3 per cent.

Coinbase earnings context

The rebound came after Coinbase’s Thursday earnings report showed a $398 million quarterly loss with softer trading activity. The firm’s trading platform also suffered an outage early Friday due to an AWS failure that was fully resolved later.

Despite the weak quarter, several Wall Street analysts focused on longer-term tailwinds tied to stablecoins and crypto regulation. Friday’s US labor market data added to the constructive backdrop: the economy added 115,000 jobs in April, comfortably above the 62,000 consensus estimate, while the unemployment rate held steady at 4.3 per cent.