Coinbase goes public: everything you need to know

Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the United States, has filed an application with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to become a publicly traded company through a direct listing (not a public offering initial). Here’s what you need to know.

Coinbase is a San Francisco-based crypto exchange that first opened in 2012. Founded by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ersham, the platform now has more than 43 million users worldwide and has processed over $ 456 billion to date – according to the last deposit with SECOND.

On January 28, the exchange officially announced its intention to go public via a direct listing on the Nasdaq, “pursuant to a proposal to directly list its Class A common stock.” This confirmed rumors of a Reuters report that emerged in July of last year that indicated the company was interested in going public.

Initially, it was believed that Coinbase would raise capital through an Initial Public Offering (IPO); a process that involves creating new stocks and using the help of underwriters – usually banks – to promote and market them to potential investors. Instead, Coinbase decided to pursue a direct listing, aka direct public offering (DPO), which essentially means cutting out the middlemen and only selling stocks that already exist. No new shares will be created.

There are three distinct advantages of this route over an IPO:

“Coinbase Global, Inc. today announced that it has confidentially submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 to the Securities and Exchange Commission (the“ SEC ”). Form S-1 is expected to come into effect after the SEC completes its review process, subject to market and other conditions. “

On February 25, Coinbase’s Form S-1 was officially released by the SEC. Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Securities were among the banks chosen by Coinbase to help it through the listing process.

Coinbase’s Class A shares will debut on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol COIN.

At this time, no official listing date has been given. We will update this article as soon as it is announced.

Since COIN shares will be listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, this means that anyone with an account with a brokerage that trades US stocks will be able to purchase COIN shares. Likewise, investors will also be able to purchase COIN shares on any mobile trading app that lists Nasdaq Global Select Market shares.

It is not yet clear how many COIN shares will be available or what the price of each share will be.