The digital wallet and cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase is officially listed on the stock exchange. Coinbase is the first cryptocurrency platform to officially list itself on the US stock exchange on the Nasdaq with the COIN code.
Registration to the stock exchange is done in person, not through conventional IPOs.
This means that Coinbase shares are sold directly to the market without underwriters, more precisely shares are offered to employees and existing shareholders.
Meanwhile, an IPO usually requires the role of underwriters to determine the price before it is thrown into the market.
Coinbase Share Price at $381
This method has also been used by Spotify. Coinbase CEO and co-founder Brian Armstrong alone holds 39.6 million shares. Coinbase’s share price opened at $ 381 per share.
The price had touched the $ 429 mark, but then fell back to the $ 310 position.
Despite the fall, Coinbase’s stock value remains above the reference price set by Nasdaq, which is $ 250. At Wednesday’s close, Coinbase’s stock was $ 328.28. At that price, Coinbase’s market cap value is $ 85.5.
Coinbase itself was founded in 2012 whose initial goal was to make it easier to buy bitcoin. But gradually, Coinbase is not only used as a digital wallet and currency exchange for Bitcoin. But also other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum.
Coinbase Has 56 Million Users
Coinbase is now recorded to have 56 million users, up from 43 million at the end of 2020, and 32 million from 2019. In 2018, Coinbase’s valuation value reached $ 8 billion.
Coinbase list it shares on stock exchange at a time when the amount of cash flowing into cryptocurrency started to increase. On the other hand, several startups have also started doing IPOs in the last six months. Such as Snowflake, Doordash, Roblox, and Airbnb.
Before taking the floor on the US stock exchange, Coinbase announced its first quarter 2021 financial statements that reached $ 1.8 billion, up nine times from the same period last year.
Claimed net income increased from $ 32 million to a range of $ 730 million to $ 800 million.
The number of monthly user transactions was also said to have increased from 2.8 million to 6.1 million within three months. In 2020, Coinbase’s revenue was recorded at $ 1.28 billion.
Most of Coinbase’s transactions are Bitcoin and Ethereum purchases, which broke record increases of more than 800 percent and 1,300 percent respectively in the past year.
Source: Reuters
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