The crypto trading platform has executed a direct listing and is now valued above $85bn, six years after BBVA, New York Stock Exchange, NTT Docomo and USAA backed it at a $490m valuation.
Coinbase, the US-headquartered crypto trading platform operators backed by corporate investors New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), BBVA, NTT Docomo and USAA, went public in a direct listing yesterday.
The company’s shares opened on the Nasdaq Global Select Market at $381 each, comfortably above the listing’s guide price of $250. They are trading at roughly $327 each at time of publication, equating to a market capitalisation of approximately $85.5bn.
Coinbase’s online platform has more than 43 million verified users who can use it to buy and sell crypto assets. It currently oversees some $90bn of assets and increased a $30.4m net loss in 2019 to a $322m net profit in 2020, while more than doubling revenue to nearly $1.28bn.
The listing comes after approximately $537m in funding, $75m coming in a 2015 series C round featuring financial services firm BBVA, stock exchange operator NYSE, insurance and financial services group USAA and Docomo Capital, part of mobile network operator NTT Docomo.
The series C round, which valued Coinbase at a reported $490m, was led by DFJ Growth and included Vikram Pandit, Tom Glocer and existing backers Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, Ribbit Capital. Its earlier investors include Y Combinator, SV Angel and FundersClub.
The company added $10.5m in a 2016 round led by financial services firm Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group’s Mitsubishi UFJ Capital subsidiary and backed by Sozo Ventures.
Coinbase upped its valuation to $1.6bn in a $100m series D round the following year that was led by IVP and which included Spark Capital, Greylock Partners, Battery Ventures, Section 32 and Draper Associates.
Tiger Global Management, Andreessen Horowitz, Wellington Management, Y Combinator Continuity and Polychain Capital subsequently invested an amount subsequently revealed by Coinbase to be $320m, through a 2018 series E round valuing it at $8bn.
Andreessen Horowitz held 24.6% of Coinbase’s class A shares prior to the listing, with Tiger Global owning 11.7% and Paradigm Fund 11.4%. Andreessen Horowitz also owned 14.2% of its class B shares while Union Square Ventures had 8.2% and Ribbit Capital 7.1%.
