Coinbase, the American cryptocurrency exchange that is planning for an initial public offering (IPO), could be valued at $28 billion, according to research company, Messari.
This valuation estimation came hours after the California-headquartered company announced the submission of a draft registration statement on Form S-1 with the US securities market regulator, eying for a public listing.
Mesarri came up with the valuation after evaluating the exchange’s all business vertices that include trading, custody and debit cards.
“Recently the company shuffled its board to include venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and Google veteran Gokul Rajaram along with former Cisco CFO Kelly Kramer in what appears to be final preparations for an offering that could see the company valued at $28 billion,” Messari wrote.
Perfect Time for a Wall Street Debut
Coinbase is one of the largest and reputed cryptocurrency exchanges with around 35 million users. It handles a daily volume of $1 billion from cryptocurrency trading, and its custody business boomed with current $20 billion in assets from the 2019’s $7 billion.
Though Coinbase did not reveal its latest valuation, $28 billion in market valuation would not be strange given its growth over the years and the market potential.
In its last $300 million funding round closed in October 2018, Coinbase was valued at $8 billion, only a year after it gained the 'Unicorn ' status with $1 billion in valuation. Founded in 2012, Coinbase raised over $525 million to date.
“This listing is important even for Token valuations as Coinbase will provide a valuation anchor — not only for future equity listings — but also for crypto-native exchange tokens,” Messari analyst, Mira Christanto noted.
The timing of Coinbase’s approach for an IPO is perfect as Bitcoin is showing bullish signs after breaching the $20,000 mark, creating more activities on the cryptocurrency exchanges.
