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The Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange application seen on the screen of an iPhone.
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Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase said on Thursday that it would start trading on April 14, after receiving regulatory clearance for its direct listing from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company, ranked No.10 on the 2018 CNBC Disruptor 50 list, posted a short blog post announcing the SEC approval. While companies like Roblox, Spotify, Slack, and Palantir were previously made public through direct listings on the New York Stock Exchange, Coinbase will be the first major direct listing on the Nasdaq.
The company has announced its intention to register nearly 115 million Class A common shares, which will trade under the symbol COIN. In a direct listing, the issuing company forgoes selling new shares and instead allows existing stakeholders to sell their shares to new investors.
The SEC go-ahead marks a milestone for cryptocurrency advocates, who have piled up in blockchain-related assets like bitcoin. It is only recently that many traditional banks and institutional investors have embraced cryptocurrency, previously deemed too speculative and volatile.
With bitcoin rising roughly 800% over the past year and an ecosystem of infrastructure companies and trading platforms emerging around it, Coinbase has soared in value as a crypto proxy. economy in the broad sense.
Coinbase listed potential bitcoin price declines as one of its risk factors in its prospectus. The company claims to have more than 43 million users who trade digital assets in more than 100 countries.
Last month, an updated dossier revealed that Coinbase had reached an implicit valuation of $ 68 billion in the private market, based on an average share price of $ 343.58. While the private market value is less representative of a company’s stock value, the Nasdaq will use this information to set a benchmark price before Coinbase’s direct listing.
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