#Coinbase files to become first listed major US #Bitcoin #Cryptocurrency exchange

Coinbase's public debut is likely to rank as one of this year's largest new tech listings © Getty Images

Coinbase generated $1.3bn in revenue last year, up from $534m the year prior, enabling the company to turn a profit of $322m in 2020 after losing $30m in 2019, according to a filing with US securities regulators.

From the FT:

Coinbase files to become first listed major US cryptocurrency exchange

Trading platform earns more than $300m in profits in 2020 on bitcoin surge

February 25, 2021 

The company's public debut, the first for a large US cryptocurrency exchange, is likely to rank as one of this year's largest new tech listings and would mark a milestone for backers of the emerging sector. Coinbase is aiming to list in late March, said one person familiar with the company's thinking.

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Coinbase filed for a direct listing rather than a traditional initial public offering, meaning it will not raise additional capital when it goes public.

Brian Armstrong, chief executive of Coinbase, warned that prospective investors should expect volatility in the company's financials.

"We may earn a profit when revenues are high, and we may lose money when revenues are low, but our goal is to roughly operate the company at break even, smoothed out over time, for the time being," Armstrong wrote in a letter attached to the filing.

Almost all of Coinbase's revenue came from transaction fees last year, it said in the filing, underlining the company's dependence on cryptocurrency trading fees.

Shares in the company have recently changed hands in private markets at prices that would give it a roughly $100bn valuation, according to people briefed on the trades, up from $8bn less than three years ago.

Coinbase could use those trades, in addition to input from public investors and its financial advisers, to determine its opening price on public markets.

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The company said institutional activity made up almost two-thirds of its total trading volume in the fourth quarter, when transaction revenues jumped more than 70 per cent from the previous quarter to $476m. It said it had 2.8m monthly transacting users in 2020, almost tripling from the year prior.

Coinbase said it oversaw about $90bn in total assets stored on the platform, representing more than 11 per cent of the total market for cryptocurrencies at the end of last year. It has also made venture capital investments in more than 100 companies.

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Among the company's biggest investors, controlling more than 5 per cent of stock each, are Andreessen Horowitz, Paradigm, Ribbit Capital, Tiger Global Management, and Union Square Ventures.

See the whole article on the FT here:  https://www.ft.com/content/536db489-d607-411f-ae71-8ef072b2d4bb?