Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, said on Thursday that it expects its Class A common shares to be listed on NASDAQ Global Select Market through direct trading from April 14, but the relevant transaction details have not been disclosed yet.
The company announced that its S-1 statement submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had been declared effective on April 1. If the relevant information is true, it will be the first heavyweight company listed on NASDAQ in the form of direct trading, but the representative of Coinbase declined to comment.
Last month, Coinbase registered 114.9 million shares for trading when the shares went public. As early as February 25th, Coinbase formally submitted a prospectus, intending to list its Class A common shares directly on NASDAQ (non-IPO), with the stock code "Coin", and Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and other companies as trading consultants. The company was originally scheduled to be listed on NASDAQ in March, but then the listing plan was postponed until April.
Coinbase is the largest cryptocurrency trading platform in the United States. The trading price in the private equity market this year ranged from US$ 200 to US$ 375, with an average value of US$ 343.58 from January to March 15.
According to the latest total circulating share capital, the corresponding valuation was US$ 67.6 billion, and the previous highest valuation once reached US$ 90 billion.
According to the prospectus, in 2020, Coinbase's total revenue was 1.277 billion US dollars, an increase of 128% compared with 534 million US dollars in 2019. The net profit was USD 322 million and the net loss for the whole year of 2019 was USD 30.4 million. That is to say, Coinbase just turned a profit last year.
According to the prospectus, Coinbase will distinguish between Class A and Class B shares, and the main difference between them lies in the number of voting rights. One Class A share corresponds to one vote, while one Class B share has 20 votes, and Class B has the right to convert into the same number of Class A shares at any time.
This time, Class A shares of Coinbase will be listed directly on the Nasdaq Stock Market. According to media reports, Coinbase has been trading on the FTX Exchange for equity certificates, and the current price is 408 US dollars. According to the 250 million Class A common shares disclosed in this prospectus, the company's current valuation is 102 billion US dollars, and the price-earnings ratio is 316 times.
At the same time, considering the popularity of crypto market and the influx of a large number of institutional customers, Larry Cermak, research director of The Blclok, pointed out that the transaction volume of Coinbase in the first quarter of 2021 is expected to reach 362.6 billion US dollars, which is four times that of the fourth quarter of last year, thus generating about 2.44 billion US dollars in handling fee income, which will also bring more support to the valuation of Coinbase.
If Coinbase goes public successfully, it will become the first stock in digital currency Stock Exchange. In this regard, some insiders also said that the listing of Coinbase will bring the industry to the next stage of "compliance development", which is beneficial to the entry of ordinary investors and institutions outside the currency circle, which is not a small benefit for the industry.
According to the statistics of CryptoCompare, the transaction volume of cryptocurrency jumped to 2.7 trillion US dollars in February this year. The cryptocurrency exchange (which can be regarded as a brokerage in digital currency), which builds canals and roads, naturally becomes a steady winner.
This means that the traditional financial market with strict access control has recognized the mainstream and legal status of digital currency and digital currency exchanges. Coinbase's landing in U.S. stocks may set off a new wave of listing on digital currency Stock Exchange.
Also today, it became known about the signing of a sponsorship deal between Coinbase and the organizer of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS: GO) BLAST Premier tournaments. The Coinbase brand will be broadcast at BLAST Premier events during the spring series from April 13 to 18 and the final stage from June 15 to 20.
Earlier, the potential earnings of Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong in case of achieving the goals in the stock market were estimated at $1 million per