And by the way, Goldman Sachs’s market value is $111 billion.Ĭoinbase is profitable, taking in $322 million last year - and an estimated $800 million in the first quarter this year alone.
It instantly became a financial giant on Wall Street.Īt $86 billion, Coinbase’s market value exceeds that of the stock exchanges its shares will trade on: Nasdaq’s market cap is $26 billion, while ICE, the parent company of the N.Y.S.E., is valued at $67 billion. “Hopefully Coinbase going public and having its direct listing is going to be viewed as kind of a landmark moment for the crypto space,” Brian Armstrong, Coinbase’s chief executive, told DealBook’s Andrew Ross Sorkin in a CNBC interview. Its size means that its stock is likely to be held by mainstream index funds, giving average investors (indirect) exposure to the world of crypto. The company is the first major crypto business to trade publicly in the U.S. Here’s what you need to know about crypto’s move into the mainstream. Michael Short/BloombergĬoinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange, began trading on the Nasdaq on Wednesday. Some customers whose accounts were plundered by attackers or who were locked out of their accounts have said the company ignored their pleas for help.īrian Armstrong, co-founder and chief executive of Coinbase, at the company’s office in San Francisco in 2017. The company’s financial prospectus included a glossary of crypto-specific terms, including internet slang like “hodl,” which means holding on to your cryptocurrency investments even when the prices tank.Īs demand for cryptocurrencies has surged this year, Coinbase has struggled to keep up with the demand.
Direct listings do not have traditional lockup periods that prevent insiders from selling shares for the first six months after the listing.Ĭoinbase’s listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange gives traditional investors, who may be interested in digital currencies but are unable or unwilling to buy them directly, an indirect way to buy into the market. Coinbase is the largest company to go public via direct listing, which has become popular among well-funded Silicon Valley start-ups that do not need to raise more cash from public market investors. Some of the company’s former Black and female employees have also spoken out against unfair treatment and were found to have been underpaid in a company report.Ĭoinbase went public through a direct listing, an unusual transaction where no new shares are issued or sold - they simply start trading. Armstrong has said Coinbase employees should avoid political discussions, a stance that has caused controversy. Its largest shareholders include Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Global and Paradigm, a crypto-focused investment firm.īrian Armstrong, Coinbase’s chief executive and a co-founder, owns nearly 40 million shares in the company, making his stake worth roughly $13 billion. But the company warned in its financial prospectus that its business performance was closely tied to the price of cryptocurrencies, which are volatile.Ĭoinbase has raised more than $500 million from venture capital investors, who last privately valued it at $8 billion.
In the first three months of the year, it estimated it made $730 million to $800 million in net profit on $1.8 billion in revenue. Unlike many other start-ups that go public, Coinbase is profitable. On Wednesday, prices had come down to $61,939. This week, the price of Bitcoin hit a record $64,000 amid excitement for Coinbase’s listing, double its value at the beginning of this year. The company, which takes a transaction fee, has been riding high on a boom year for cryptocurrencies, as investors have poured money into the assets and driven their prices to new highs. Founded in San Francisco in 2012, Coinbase allows people and companies to buy and sell various digital currencies, including Bitcoin, the most popular, and Ether.