The leading cryptocurrency platform Coinbase has filed paperwork with the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) on Thursday seeking a direct listing on Nasdaq. With this, Coinbase Global Inc. becomes the latest company that is taking an unconventional route to go public. The move to distribute shares through public listing instead of the traditional IPO came amidst a cryptocurrency boom, especially in Bitcoin when its price has skyrocketed in recent weeks.
Coinbase seeks direct listing after its revenue doubled in 2020. As per the form S-1 filed with the SEC, Coinbase’s revenue has more than doubled in 2020 that implies the growing appetite for digital currencies. According to the filing, Coinbase’s net revenue rose from $483 million to $1.14 billion in 2020. Coinbase has also reported its net income of $322 million in 2020 after a huge loss in 2019. Moreover, the revenue from direct sales of cryptocurrencies and interest income reported being around $136 million, thereby pushing its total revenue in 2020 to above $1.2 billion.
The huge loss of Coinbase in the previous year highlights the underlying tension between the business model of Coinbase and the “buy-and-hold” ethos of the Bitcoin proponents. Thus, now when the Bitcoin price is skyrocketing, the exchange wants to make use of the most of it. It considers the potential price decline in Bitcoin as one of its risk factors and, therefore, to drive the growth of the overall cryptocurrency economy and to serve the needs of all its consumers, Coinbase’s stock would be trading on Nasdaq with the ticker “COIN.” Coinbase’s stock listing on Nasdaq would represent a landmark victory for the cryptocurrency advocates struggling for mainstream endorsement.
Therefore, in the recent S-1 filing to SEC, Coinbase has included Bitcoin as one of its designated recipients. According to the filing and recent Coinbase reviews, Coinbase has over 56 million verified users, out of which 6.1 million conduct transactions monthly. Moreover, the platform supports more than 90 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, for trading and custody.
The paperwork filed by Coinbase reads,