Coinbase Reveals its Plans to go Directly Public

Coinbase, one of the world’s most significant digital currency exchanges, has long been rumoured to be considering going directly public. 

According to a registration filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, the cryptocurrency exchange plans to directly list its class common shares. The registration filing of Form S-1 will take effect once the US Securities Regulator completes its review.

The San Francisco-based crypto exchange is scheduled to go public later this year.

The direct listing format would not offer new shares but would sell existing ones directly to the public. Some of the advantages of this format for holders of company shares may be the ability to trade without blocking. Palantir recently used the model. It has the potential to create “instant billionaires.”

Coinbase said that this announcement does not constitute an offer to sell or solicit any offers to buy securities. This announcement is issued under 135 of the Securities Law.

The exchange first disclosed its intention to go public on December 17 by filing a registration project with the SEC. A Business Insider news story later claimed that Coinbase intends to work with Goldman Sachs on an initial public offering. However, the company did not provide any confirmation at the time. 

The cryptocurrency exchange will grow

According to Coinbase’s last valuation, the company was worth $8 billion. But it was in 2018. Cryptocurrency analytics firm Messari says the exchange could be worth $28 billion following a public offering.

The company is one of the biggest names in cryptocurrencies and has a reputation for working well with US regulators. Coinbase has targeted the American institutional customer. It means complying with regulations has been a priority. That attitude is not very popular among crypto-anarchists in this space, but financially the approach has been quite successful.

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Coinbase’s sphere of influence continues to increase following several high-profile acquisitions. According to Cointelegraph’s report, the exchange recently acquired Bison Trails, a fully managed blockchain infrastructure provider. In January, the company acquired the Routefire platform, helping boost the execution of operations significantly.

Coinbase has logged more than $320 billion in trading volume and has more than 35 million users.

According to BBVA, everything seems to indicate that the Coinbase IPO will be a total success. Largely it is due to the Bitcoin boom. Besides, the company has grown a lot in recent years.