Coinbase, a major cryptocurrency company, already set history with its first public listing. And its market debut on Wednesday experienced a skyrocketing value. It explicitly revealed the investors’ desperate interest in digital/virtual currency.
“Coinbase announces to go public through direct listing” (Credit-Coindesk)
Nasdaq already set a $250 reference price for every share on Tuesday. Not to mention, Stock Exchange sets a reference price for new listings based on its expectations on opening.
But Coinbase started trading at $381 from Wednesday afternoon. Every share went a 52% increase to exceed the expectation of the crypto value. And the trading day manages to reflect the unpredictable nature of cryptocurrency value.
Coinbase even dropped to $310 at one point against its highest $429 valuation. The value ended its debut at $328.8 to hold Coinbase’s net value at $85.7BN.
The outstanding increase in share simply valued the crypto 10 times more than its private value.
“Coinbase share price on its stock market debut” (Source-TradingView)
Coinbase stands pretty different from other startups to go public in terms of profit. The first three months of 2021 made a net profit of $730MM to $800MM against its $1.8BN revenue. Therefore, investing in Coinbase looks pretty favorable.
The listing reveals an indirect way for conventional investors to enter the digital currency market. Its prospectus includes a detailed glossary of usable crypto-specific terms. For example – internet slang like ‘hold refers to holding the investment against its cumulative price.
However, the cryptocurrency value remains volatile with nondescript change. And the company held a warning in its ongoing financial prospectus.
Coinbase is the largest company to go public using a direct listing strategy. It’s an uncommon transaction without selling or issuing any new shares to start trading. A direct listing is quite popular among major Silicon Valley startups with convenient funds.
The intended method requires no additional raise from public stock investors. And no lockup period allows the company’s insiders to sell shares after listing.
Bitcoin price already hit a record-setting $64,000 on the announcement of Coinbase going public. It’s almost double Bitcoin’s price at the beginning of 2021. But Wednesday initiated a slight downfall in its price, settling for $61,939.
Since 2021, Coinbase allows clients to make transactions using different cryptocurrencies. But it explicitly focuses on Bitcoin & Ethereum for online trading. And the valuation keeps booming with the investors’ pouring money to drive its price higher.
The company managed to raise more than $500MM from venture capital investors. Its prominent shareholders include names like Tiger Global, Paradigm & Andreessen Horowitz. And the last private valuation reached a mind-blowing $8.0BN.
As it happens, the actual demand for multiple cryptocurrencies keeps surging in 2021. But Coinbase continued struggling to cope with the customer demand. Going public with a dominating bang should fill the gap to make the investors happy soon enough.