Ahead April Coinbase 730m800m Q1 1.8b – Coinbase, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, posted its first-ever profitable quarter this past January. The San Francisco-based company generated an estimated $168M-$188M in net profit on a whopping $1.8B USD in Q4 2018 revenue. In total, Coinbase had around 56 million verified users at the end of December 31st, 2018.
Coinbase first announced the launch of its cryptocurrency exchange in January of 2012. In July of 2013, Coinbase was granted a “BitLicense” by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). The license authorizes Coinbase to handle the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin.
In January of 2015, Coinbase received a $75M investment from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Then, in December 2017, Japan’s largest bank – Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. – announced that it had invested $1.6B in Coinbase.
Coinbase has its headquarters in San Francisco and currently operates in 32 countries including the United States, UK, Canada, Australia, Singapore, and Japan.
Coinbase is currently preparing for a direct listing , which is set to go live on the morning of April 10th. The direct listing will allow investors to buy shares of Coinbase with no restrictions on pricing or timing. Coinbase will not be selling any shares at the time of its listing.
What Does This Mean for Coinbase?
It is believed that Coinbase’s direct listing will increase the company’s exposure to more investors and bring more money into the market. San Francisco-based Susquehanna International Group recently said that it expected Coinbase to reach $5B USD in revenue by 2022. The company reported $1B USD in revenue between January and March of 2019 alone, so a five-fold increase seems possible.
Coinbase’s direct listing will also put pressure on other cryptocurrency exchanges to report their trading data. Coinbase recently announced that its US-based exchange recorded over $50B USD in trading volume for 2018 – a significant increase from a reported $10B USD in 2017. The exchange is currently the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, reporting a total of $168B USD in 24-hour trading volume across all currencies. On April 9th, the day before its listing, Coinbase was responsible for 28% of all global bitcoin trade volume.
Coinbase’s direct listing will also increase the company’s liquidity, as it will allow it to sell a much larger portion of its shares to the public. As of now, Coinbase only plans to sell 2.5% of its total equity.
How Much Has Coinbase Raised So Far?
Coinbase is currently valued at around $8 Billion, as 20 million shares are currently trading on the company’s stock exchange – worth about $1B USD each. The price range for these shares has ranged from $12.59 to $15.19 USD since Coinbase first started trading shares in 2017.
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Coinbase is currently preparing for its direct listing by reaching out to investors, retail and institutional investors, venture capitalists, and more. The company is also planning to hire at least 500 new employees by the end of 2019 in order to help it handle all of this new business. The company has already hired 400 employees in the last six months alone.
Coinbase is also planning to formalize its basic investment tiering regulations with SEC approval.
