Category: Coinbase

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Coinbase Shares Finally Debut on NASDAQ at $381 per COIN

Coinbase Shares Finally Debut on NASDAQ at $381 per COIN

Coinbase, the leading United States cryptocurrency exchange, has finally launched on NASDAQ, with a 50 percent increase in the share price.

Coinbase Valuation Has Surpassed $100 Billion

The Coinbase Shares (ticker symbol COIN) began trading on the stock exchange on Wednesday at the market price of $381 USD. This is about 50 percent higher than the reference price set by the exchange on Tuesday. At 1:31 PM, New York time, the shares’ price exploded to as high as $403 USD, bringing Coinbase’s valuation to over $100 billion shortly after the market debut.

COIN performance so far ranked the exchange as the 142nd largest company in the globe, according to data from Companies Market Cap.

We’ve had a number of ups and downs on our way here. Through luck and skill, Coinbase succeeded where many predicted it would fail. […] Today’s listing is a milestone, but it’s not as important as every new day in front of us. Coinbase has an ambitious mission: to increase economic freedom in the world.

Brian Armstrong, Co-founder, and CEO of Coinbase

Industry Reaction to COIN Listing on NASDAQ

Coinbase listing on the stock market has been one of the most-discussed topic in the cryptocurrency space, as it marks the first-ever crypto company to go public. Instead of choosing the traditional initial public offering (IPO) route, the exchange direct-listed on NASDAQ, meaning the exchange will issue its existing shares rather than offering new ones.

Many crypto enthusiasts and companies reacted positively to the development today. Binance has announced it will list the Coinbase stock tokens after the stock market debut.

The author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki, also commented on the milestone, saying that Coinbase listing will bring more credibility to the crypto market.

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Coinbase Crypto Exchange Crypto News

Coinbase Bringing Crypto To Wall Street In Landmark Stock Market Listing

Wall St
Wall St

Wall Street is buzzing as the largest U.S. crypto platform is setting up for its debut on a traditional exchange on Wednesday. As Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies rise to record levels ahead of the direct offering there has been varied speculation about the listing price.

The Nasdaq on Tuesday night set a reference price for the company at $250 per share, meaning the company is can be valued at around $49.19 billion USD. Should Coinbase hit the public market around its latest private market valuation of $100 billion, taking into account a fully diluted share count, it would instantly be one of the 85 most valuable U.S. companies. Nearly 115 million Coinbase shares will be put on the market to start.

The opening public price will be determined based on buy and sell orders in the opening auction on Nasdaq.

Nasdaq

Varying Expectations of The Listing

Investors expect that valuations could top $100 billion, since the company just published an astounding set of preliminary Q1 2021 results, with revenue jumping 9x year-over-year. In an implied valuation on Tuesday by FTX exchange, Coinbase was valued at approximately $150 billion USD.

CNBC

Coinbase would be valued more than Nasdaq, which has a market cap of $25.9 billion and possibly the Intercontinental Exchange (parent company of the New York Stock Exchange), valued at more than $66.9 billion.

They make more money than any publicly listed exchange in the world. They’ll make more money than Nasdaq… Coinbase is also not the most profitable cyrpto exchange in the world.

Tom Lee, Fundstrat founder

There are positive and negative outlooks at the valuation of Coinbase, Stock research firm New Constructs stated it should be valued at $18.9 billion USD, since “the company has little-to-no-chance of meeting the future profit expectations that are baked into its ridiculously high expected valuation of $100 billion“.

On the other hand Susquehanna, a research and trading firm was considerably more optimistic stating a fair valuation would be between $96 and $108 billion USD, due to the company’s high growth.

Can Coinbase Be Consistently Profitable?

This could be a pivotal moment for the crypto currency industry however, investors need feel the need to practice caution, since the company has a dependence on the price of virtual currencies, which tend to be volatile. So the implication is that Coinbase’s revenue is correlated with the level of activity in cryptocurrency and especially Bitcoin and Ethereum. If price or volume declines, their business, operating results, and financial condition would be adversely affected.

The success of Coinbase and cryptocurrencies in general seems to have inspired competitors too. The head of the California-based cryptocurrency exchange platform Kraken told CNBC last week he hopes to take his company public next year, also via a direct listing – possibly resulting in more options for investing in digital asset exchanges.

The listing is significant in that it marks the growth of the industry and its acceptance into mainstream business.

William Cong, an associate professor of finance at Cornell University’s SC Johnson College of Business
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Coinbase Crypto Exchange Crypto News

Coinbase Revenue Hits $1.8 Billion With The Help of Major User Increase

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase reveals it has reached $1.8 billion in total revenue as well as a massive 117% increase in monthly trading users in just one quarter.

A recent report by Coinbase, shows their first quarter estimated results, before next weeks Nasdaq listing. The increase in users was one of the factors propelling the approximate net income of $730 million to $800million.

Numbers Are Looking Good for Coinbase

  • 56 million verified users
  • Active users on Coinbase jumped from 2.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2020 to 6.1 million in the first quarter of 2021.
  • Assets on Platform of $223 billion, representing 11.3% crypto asset market share (includes $122 billion institutional assets)
  • Trading volumes topped $335 billion in Q1. For all of 2020, trading volume was $193 billion.

The report also gave an outlook for their monthly transacting users based on three different performance scenarios:

  • In the “high” scenario, Coinbase would average 7 million Monthly Transacting Users (MTUs) if there is an increase in crypto market capitalization, and with moderate to high crypto price volatility, MTUs would continue to grow for the remainder of 2021.
  • The “mid” scenario, Coinbase would average 5.5 million MTUs if the crypto market is flat, with a modest decline in MTUs from Q1 2021.
  • The “low” scenario, Coinbase would average 4 million MTUs if market capitalisation decreases to that of the 2018 bear market, and “MTUs will decrease in a corresponding manner and end 2021 at similar levels to Q4 2020.”

Making Preparations for Retailers And Institutions

Coinbase’s technology and development expenses and general and administrative expenses are going to be between $1.3 billion to $1.6 billion, excluding stock-based compensation, in 2021 – showing lots of investment into the platform.

On the retail side, the company will be adding more assets and giving people more access to decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said during Tuesday’s earnings call. Haas said she expects the average net revenue per user to reach new records in 2021.

For the last two years we’ve seen average net revenue per MTU [monthly transacting user] range between $34 and $45 per month.

Alesia Haas, CFO of Coinbase

On the institutional side, the company will continue to build out its prime brokerage offering and use its Bison Trails acquisition to create what Armstrong called the “Amazon Web Services for crypto.”

How do you have users doubling and growth three times that? It happens because volume per user also increased. That’s the increase in the price of bitcoin.

James Friedman, senior fintech research analyst at Susquehanna International Group

Sales and marketing are also planned to get between 12% and 15% increase. The numbers in this report seem to attest to a company that is thriving in the emerging crypto economy.

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Coinbase Crypto Exchange Crypto News

Coinbase Crypto Exchange To Be Listed On Nasdaq 14 April

In an announcement by Coinbase their public direct listing of its Class A common stock was declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 1, 2021, and are set to be available on Nasdaq April 14.

In a direct listing, the issuing company forgoes selling new stock and instead allows existing stakeholders to sell their shares to new investors. The company has said it plans to register nearly 115 million shares.

The crypto exchange and custodian will also hold a first-quarter earnings call on April 6, to provide a financial outlook for 2021, Coinbase said in a press release.

Coinbase Has Made Major Stride Since Its Inception

The company was valued at between $90 and $100 billion in its final week of trading on Nasdaq’s private market. Further, a $100 billion debut would make Coinbase more valuable than traditional tech stocks such as Uber. The company has more than 43 million users trading digital assets in over 100 countries. The company also in 2020, brought in $1.3 billion in revenue and turned a profit of $322 million.

Based on the average price of $343.58 of shares traded on Nasdaq’s private market last month, CNBC calculated Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong’s 39.6 million shares will be worth $13.6 billion, catapulting him into the billionaire rankings alongside individuals like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Bill Gates.

The Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also announced that it had reached a settlement deal worth $6.5 million with Coinbase. The settlement puts an end to the company’s claims reporting inaccurate transaction data, along with allegations of a former employee indulging in improper trading – allowing them to continue with their listing.

The listing had been pushed back from March however, the delay was anticipated, as direct listings are usually delayed.

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Cardano Coinbase Crypto News

ADA Surges 18% in Price as Coinbase Pro Allows ADA Trading

Today, Coinbase announced support for Cardano’s ADA in Coinbase Pro. Trading will start this Thursday, at 9:00 PM pacific time. Users can compare ADA’s price in four currencies:

  • ADA-USD
  • ADA-BTC
  • ADA-EUR
  • ADA-GBP

According to the blog post, Coinbase will support Shelley addresses, one of Cardano’s wallets with the prefix “addr1”. The platform is planning to provide full support for the Byron wallet, also called “Legacy”.

Coinbase Users Demanding ADA

Cardano is rising fast in the crypto-community since the protocol implemented the Mary Fork in its ecosystem, turning it into a multi-asset network.

Likewise, the support for ADA came shortly after the platform registered heavy demand from users, as Cardano becomes an attractive asset for crypto-traders and investors.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Charles Hoskinson gave stated that about 100 DeFi protocols will ditch Ethereum and switch to Cardano’s protocol. Accordingly, Cardano is ready to provide several benefits for DeFi than its competitors with its new multi-asset system.

The ADA token surged over 477% since January this year, calling the attention of several investors in the crypto market.

More Australians Buying ADA

Likewise, more Australians are considering adding ADA to their portfolio as price increases. Moreover, the token appeared in 9 News Australia, in a section called “The New Bitcoin”, stating that more investors are exploring Cardano as an alternative for BTC.

ADA is up 18% following the announcement, trading at $1,21, according to Coinmarketcap. 24-hour trading volumes have reached levels over $7,500,000,000, a 70.00% increase.

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Bitcoin Coinbase Institutions

Bitcoin Whale Moves AU$1 Billion of BTC into Storage

According to the popular blockchain tracking and analysis service Whale Alert, a user has moved 13,204 BTC worth nearly AU$1 billion out of Coinbase and into an ‘unknown wallet’. This typically indicates a wealthy individual or large institution buying Bitcoin and moving it into ‘cold storage’ such as a hard wallet for safekeeping.

The transactions happened over a one-hour period and involved 34 individual transactions of around 380 BTC each worth approximately US$21 million each. The choice of number could be a reference to Bitcoin’s 21 million supply cap but it’s probably just coincidental.

Naturally, the moves attracted attention, with several Twitter comments questioning whether this could be another big buy from Michael Saylor’s Microstrategy investment firm. However, these moves all occurred during a Sunday, which would be odd for a company or traditional financial institution.

Big BTC Moves

Although this recent transfer amounts to a considerable amount of cash, it’s relatively small compared to some previous big moves. Last year in June, just after Bitcoin’s 3rd halvening, a whale moved 132,255 BTC in three separate transfers, amounting to US$1.3 billion at the time.

In the number of actual coins moved, even that amount remains comparatively small. Way back in 2011, a single transaction was completed involving 550,000 BTC, worth a whopping US$30.8 billion today but a meager US$1.3 million at the time.

Bitcoin Continues to Push Higher

Large moves such as these indicate big players entering the market and placing their coins in longterm storage with the expectation of further growth. If an individual or company with that much money has such strong faith in Bitcoin then one can only assume a fair amount of research has gone into their decision.

Just this year alone, both Bitcoin’s individual market cap and the wider cryptocurrency market cap have almost doubled in value. Bitcoin recently crossed the significant $1 trillion mark, climbing from US$530 million on December 31st, 2020.

The price of one BTC hit a new all-time high of above US$58,600 yesterday before suffering a mild rejection that has taken it back down to US$56,000. However, the price remains above the upward trend line and has already begun to make a decent recovery.

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Australia Bitcoin Bitcoin Cash Coinbase Ethereum Litecoin

Australian Online Pet Shop Now Accepts Cryptocurrency As Payment

Pet Parlour is the first Australia pet shop to accept cryptocurrency through their partnership with digital currency exchange Coinbase. Customers can pay using Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dai, Ethereum or Litecoin.

Launching in November, Pet Parlour aims to deliver high quality pet products fast to Australian consumers. Founder Tom Sadler says,

“Our approach is unique in the Australian market. We wanted to offer our customers every possible payment solution. By offering multiple payment options we are aiming for a frictionless customers experience.”

At the moment, it looks like the pet shop mainly offers Dog products including dog food, toys and shampoo. They are supporting many brands, including the Australian Naturals range, where every product bought also supports an Australian business.

Along with accepting cryptos as payment, customers also have the option of paying via Visa, Mastercard, PayPal or Afterpay.

Developing Trend – Australian Businesses Accepting Crypto as Payment

Cryptocurrency is not yet adopted mainstream as an everyday payment option, but this trend is slowly changing as we see more Australian businesses consider accepting it.

While Pet Parlour is the first Australian pet shop to go down this route, it’s a trend we have seen emerge from other industries. South Korean electronics giant Samsung Group renewed its partnership with crypto shopping application Lolli earlier this month, providing opportunities for shoppers to earn reward points in Bitcoin when shopping for Samsung products.

Cryptocurrency is growing in popularity, and we are starting to see many online shops support them as a payment method across Australia. Previously we have also seen many Australian restaurants support cryptocurrencies as payment. With worldwide e-commerce sales also rising it has been also suggested we may see giants such as Paypal and Amazon enter the e-commerce space soon. And we also saw Mastercard announce Crypto Card Partner Program, Making it Easier for Consumers to Hold and Activate Cryptocurrencies.

This highlights the potentials of cryptocurrency becoming a legitimate form of value transfer.

Get Involved

If you’re looking to accept cryptocurrencies for your business we have a guide to help you set that up. And if you’re a customer looking to buy online with cryptocurrencies then checkout our Crypto Visa Cards review.

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Coinbase Cryptocurrencies Cryptocurrency Law

Coinbase Platform for Startups In The Works

Staple cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase is developing a platform designed for startups that will allow new companies to mint their own custom crypto assets.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong was recently a guest on the podcast led by investor Patrick O’Shaughnessy, Invest Like The Best.

While outlining his vision for the future of cryptocurrencies, Brian Armstrong stated that a common grievance of many new companies is the abundance of regulatory and funding impediments faced by crypto startups. As a relatively new phenomenon, not all countries and markets have gotten around to drafting proper legislation, often sparking confusion.

 Although Coinbase has invested in over 60 crypto startups through Coinbase Ventures, Brian Armstrong is of the opinion that the loopholes and nuances in current cryptocurrency legislation often discourage new talent with new ideas – A problem he is aiming to fix with this new platform.

“There’s a lot of really talented teams trying to build companies this way now, but a lot of the regulatory environment is still unclear for them about, ‘Is this a security? What kind of securities regulations might you trip up if you do these’ And so, there’s all these kind of different exemptions and stuff that people are trying to jump through hoops to try to make [it] work.”

Coinbase Launch, Coming Soon

The new Coinbase platform designed to help entrepreneurs join in on the action will be called Coinbase Launch – although the name may change in the future. Coinbase Launch will assist new companies with processes, the creation of smart contracts, token offerings, legislative suggestions, and so on and so forth.

Once launched, the new platform could potentially lead to exponential growth in the adoption of cryptocurrencies. Now armed with the knowledge and resources to put their plans into action, we may soon be seeing an avalanche of startups taking opportunity of Coinbase’s expertise and reputation to change the world.