Before Coinbase held the auction, they could have traded each share at around 375. The company expects its IPO to go into effect in late March.
One of the oldest companies in the ecosystem of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is precisely Coinbase. The company reached a total value of around USD 90 billion, after selling its shares at a private auction.
In recent days, the company based in San Francisco, United States, sold each of its shares for around USD 350. Anonymous sources who are familiar with that sale gave this information to the Bloomberg news agency.
This could be the last chance for Coinbase to sell its shares privately on Nasdaq. The same sources reported that the company hopes to go public on the stock market.
Before the auction, they traded some of the shares at a higher price, equivalent to around USD 375 per unit. That price could have helped the company reach even a total value of USD 100 billion.
These types of sales do not always indicate the future price of the shares of the American exchange. However, this process, which has been brewing since 2020, can help determine its initial value once it goes public.
In the beginning, Coinbase had planned to go public via an Initial Public Offering (IPO). However, in January the exchange announced that they would go on the market through a direct listing.
This would be the first direct listing of this scale on the Nasdaq market. This alternative to IPOs does not contemplate creating new shares but rather trading those that the company already has.
Analysts initially put the value of the 9-year-old company at around USD 28 billion. Although their negotiation will not determine the IPO price, the benchmark triples those initial estimates.
Bitcoin Gains Momentum in Traditional Markets
Coinbase’s upcoming IPO is just one example of the momentum that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been gaining. Besides, companies dedicated to this ecosystem have become popular among traditional markets and investors.
The first cryptocurrency, which Satoshi Nakamoto created just around 12 years ago, has taken the world by storm. Bitcoin’s market capitalization exceeds USD 1 trillion, thus making it one of the 10 most valuable assets in the world. Only a few markets exceed the value of the pioneering cryptocurrency, the most prominent of which are those of gold and silver.
At the same time, investors see Bitcoin as a store of value comparable or even better than gold itself. This happens as the cryptocurrency gains ground in corporate funds and traditional markets.
There are already several Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on stock exchanges such as that of Canada. Besides, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is currently evaluating the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) application. The exchange specializing in derivatives is waiting for the commission to approve its request to list its ETF shares.
By Alexander Salazar
