Coinbase is one of the prominent names when it comes to crypto revolutions in the industry. It will also become the first crypto exchange to go public. And as its IPO is nearing, Coinbase has been cleared by the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) for NASDAQ listing. This will be a big move for the crypto space and will further make this entire space a lot more common. Coinbase had a major role in helping other major companies invest in crypto too. Even Tesla reported that the $1.5 billion investment it made was through Coinbase.
More about Coinbase’s IPO
The company’s IPO is very near, and it is scheduled to go live on 14th April. Coinbase is choosing the ticker name as COIN, and this will be a direct listing on NASDAQ. This is quite different from a traditional IPO as the company doesn’t sell its shares in advance. Here the market price is decided based on the demand after the listing, and it is arguably a better way to estimate the price per share of a company. Another great thing about direct listing is that companies don’t need to hire banks, and hence they save a lot on processing costs and fees.
Back in 2018, the company was evaluated at a mere $8 billion. But in the past year, the evaluation of the company has increased by more than 8 times, and it is currently sitting at $68 billion. Based on this and the private market trading, the price of Coinbase’s share is estimated to be around $350. As the craze for crypto increases globally, we are also expecting a steep increase in the demand for Coinbase’s share.
Coinbase’s recent controversy
It is important to know that Coinbase was cleared by the SEC even after the recent controversy it was fined for. The company was allegedly participating in internal trading by selling Litecoin between two automatic trading programs. This demonstrated false liquidity and also seemed to have misguided many investors. But Coinbase was fined a hefty amount of $6.5 million for this heist they pulled of between 2015-18. This can ultimately lead to a lower share price for the company if people take this more seriously.
I was going through a forum regarding the same, and people were pretty pissed at what was going on at Coinbase. Just one thing that saved Coinbase from a more significant backlash was their transparency about the whole situation. They made it very clear before the IPO that they are under investigation by the CFTC. At least this shows that they are not hiding anything. And even they think that the internal trading was something that was not intentional on the part of the company. It was more of an illegal thing being done by one of their employees.
What do you think will Coinbase’s share go for in the open market? Let us know in the comments below. Also, if you found our content informative, do like it and share it with your friends.
Also, Read: Visa’s crypto move pushed Ethereum and BTC to highs.