The San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange and brokerage service Coinbase plans to go public later this year or early next year, sources told Reuters today.
While many cryptocurrency firms already did an initial public offering (IPO), in which new shares are created, underwritten and sold to the public, Coinbase is pursuing a direct listing, in which no new shares are created and only existing shares are sold with no underwriters involved.
Reuters report further states that although Coinbase is nearing to be floated, it has not yet filed with the SEC for this purpose, but has been in talks to hire investment banks and law firms.
Strictly compliant with regulations, Coinbase, which has around 500 employees and nearly 35 million users, is one of the world’s most popular consumer-facing cryptocurrency platforms.
Until now, Coinbase has raised a total of $525.3 million. Its latest $300 million fundraising round took place in 2018 and at this time it confirmed its status as the largest digital asset provider of its kind after bringing its market valuation up to $8 billion.
Although there were no exact figures available about its revenues, Coinbase had reportedly a cracking 2017 thanks to layman interest in Cryptocurrencies that users can buy and sell through the app.
As it positioned itself as one of the strongest on-ramps for mainstream crypto-investors, Coinbase’s revenue exploded from $16 million in 2016 to $923 million in 2017, generating a profit of $380 million in the year. However, some estimates suggest that it collected less revenue of nearly $520 million in 2018 a total turnover of $488 million in 2019.
Many crypto firms have revived their IPO plans on the heels of a bull run in cryptocurrency markets. The abrupt upside movement of the Bitcoin price, which has made over 100 percent gain last year, follows its free-fall by almost 75% in 2018. Although the No.1 cryptocurrency is still far from its all-time highs of $20,000, which it hit in late 2017, crypto enthusiasts are increasingly optimistic that the 2020 bounce is real and is set to continue.
