Goldman Sachs Equity Research upgraded Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN) stock in a recent note to Neutral from Sell as the bullish run in crypto prices drove higher trading volumes on the exchange.

Analyst Will Nance attributed the crypto rally -- with bitcoin (BTC-USD) touching a new all-time high early this week -- to the upcoming halving event, the successful rollout of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds, as well as increased political and geopolitical uncertainty.

COIN is considered by many a high-beta version of crypto prices. As such, the stock gained 39.5% this year and 292% year-over-year, compared with bitcoin's (BTC-USD) 52.6% YTD climb and 211.3% surge. Though COIN generally has a strong relationship with the price of BTC, the two have seen a divergence in performance in recent days, as market participants pour money into spot BTC ETFs.

The company's daily volumes have been about $6B over the past week, on average, Nance wrote, citing public data. That's up almost 4x from Q1 2023.

COIN edged up 0.9% in premarket trading.

Nance's Neutral rate aligns with the SA Quant system rating, the average SA analyst rating and the average sell-side analyst rating, all at Hold.