Coinbase has just made history as the first crypto company that goes public as it went live on NASDAQ.
COIN shares were being traded at $381 on market open yesterday, higher than the $250 reference price that the NASDAQ had set yesterday.
Coinbase filed 261.3 million Common Stock shares to the SEC this week, according to CryptoBriefing.com, and COIN is now being traded at $395, meaning that the company is valued at about $103 billion.
The company going public is a historical event for the crypto industry, and it offers further proof that the domain is entering the mainstream. In order to celebrate the event, Coinbase left a timestamp in the Bitcoin blockchain via f2pool with a headline from today’s edition of The New York Times.
Coinbase was established in 2012, and it is known for catering to the retail investor market. The revenue is earned by charging fees to buy and trade digital currencies. The most popular cryptocurrencies are Bitcoin and Ethereum.
In more recent times, the company also became a hub for institutional investors as the crypto movement started gaining traction. Coinbase offers a custodial service that targets high net worth individuals. It has also played a part in assisting MicroStrategy in its acquisition of BTC.
Days before the public listing, Coinbase revealed that in Q1 2021, it had managed to generate $1.8 billion in revenue, which is more than it had made in the entire year of 2020.
It is also notable that Coinbase didn’t choose an initial public offering but a direct listing, which means they can sell shares to the public without having to use an underwriter or issue new shares.
“I wanted there to be just a true market on day one that set the price. I feel like it was more true to the ethos of crypto,” the CEO and co-founder of Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, has recently declared.