Coinbase Files for IPO via Direct Listing on Nasdaq — Valuation Soars Above $100 Billion

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Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has filed for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The company has chosen the direct listing route and has applied for its shares to be listed on Nasdaq.

• Coinbase filed Form S-1 Registration Statement for its IPO with the SEC on Thursday. The company revealed in December that it had confidentially applied to go public.

• The company explained that it is offering “Class A common stock for sale via a direct listing,” which means “any person or business with a brokerage account” can place an order for the shares in the opening order book.

• The SEC filing explains that Coinbase has applied to list its Class A common stock “on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol COIN.”

• Coinbase states that it currently has “approximately 43 million retail users, 7,000 institutions, and 115,000 ecosystem partners in over 100 countries.” As of Dec. 31, 2020, the platform had executed $456 billion in trading volume since its inception and stored over $90 billion worth of assets. In May 2020, the company became “a remote-first company,” which means, “we do not maintain a headquarters.”

• Moreover, Coinbase’s valuation jumped to more than $100 billion ahead of the IPO. According to Axios, “The most recent batch of 127,000 shares was sold [last] Friday at $373, which works out to a valuation of $100.23 billion.” On FTX exchange, Coinbase’s (CBSE) pre-IPO contract soared when the SEC filing news broke but has since retreated slightly.

• As for revenue, Coinbase declared that “Since inception through December 31, 2020, we generated over $3.4 billion in total revenue, largely from transaction fees that we earn from volume-based trades on our platform by retail users and institutions. For the year ended December 31, 2020, transaction revenue represented over 96% of our net revenue.”

• For its IPO, the company explained: “We will be treated as an ’emerging growth company’ as that term is used in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 for certain purposes until we complete this listing.”

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