Coinbase announced on Wednesday that it had registered more than 114.85 million Class A common stock for its much-anticipated public listing. In the amended S-1a prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the cryptocurrency exchange revealed that it is planning the resale of 114,850,769 shares for a maximum offering price of $943,218,155. However, the value will depend on the demand during the offering. Coinbase, which is the top American crypto exchange, confirmed its intentions to go public with a direct listing in January. The company is bypassing the strict traditional initial public offering (IPO) route and will not issue any new shares for its public listing. Though the exchange did not reveal any listing date, its stocks are expected to be listed on Nasdaq Global Select Market later this month under the ticker ‘COIN’. Coinbase will be categorized as an 'emerging growth company'. Though the official valuation of the direct listing is not yet revealed, media reports suggesting that the exchange might see a near $100 billion valuation at the listing. In a recently conducted private auction conducted by Nasdaq Private Market, Coinbase shares were traded at a valuation of around $90 billion.
Public Debut of Crypto Exchanges
Established in 2012, Coinbase dominates the United States crypto exchange market and has also expanded aggressively around the globe. The exchange has around 43 million verified users in more than 100 countries. Coinbase will be the first crypto exchange of its scale to become public. It ended 2020 with a total revenue of $1.3 billion and netted an income of $322.3 million last year, pivoting from a loss of $30.4 million in 2019. Similar to Coinbase, other well-known crypto exchanges like Kraken and Bakkt are also planning to go public. eToro, an Israeli Multi-Asset broker, recently announced its decision of a SPAC merger for a $10.4 billion stock market debut.
