Coinbase, the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange and the largest in the US, has announced that it has secretly filed to go public with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. At the same time, Bitcoin ushered in an historic trend, breaking through four levels of $20,000, $21,000, $22,000 and $23,000 successively, constantly breaking new record highs.
Encrypted exchange Coinbase has filed to go public
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc. Announced that the company has filed for an INITIAL public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), becoming the first major cryptocurrency exchange to go public. Coinbase said in a statement that it had secretly submitted a draft registration statement on form S-1 to the SEC. SEC Form S-1 is the initial registration form for a new security required by the SECURITIES and Exchange Commission for a U.S. public company. Any securities that meet the criteria must be filed with s-1 before the stock can be listed in the United States.
The largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US
Valued at more than $8 billion
Coinbase is now the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, according to data. Coinbase was founded in 2012. According to its website, Coinbase has more than 35 million certified users, more than $320 billion in total transactions, and more than $2.5 billion in platform assets.
The valuation of Coinbase’s IPO was not available because Coinbase did not mention further information. Coinbase raised $300 million in a series E round in 2018 that valued the company at $8 billion. The market believes Coinbase will be valued at no less than that, compared with a valuation of $1.6 billion in 2017.
In addition, Coinbase ranked 12th in Forbes’ “global Blockchain top 50 in 2020” list. In the Hurun 2020 Global Unicorn List released in August this year, Coinbase ranked the 31st on the list with a value of 55 billion yuan, the second in the blockchain industry on the list. Top of the list is Ripple, worth 70 billion yuan.
Coinbase is a $20 billion-plus hosting company that manages grayscale bitcoin products
At the end of November, Coinbase was hosting more than $20 billion in encrypted assets, up from about $6 billion in April, according to Brett Tejpaul, head of Coinbase institutions, in an interview. In just seven months, Coinbase’s hosting scale has grown by $14bn, or more than 300%.
One reason for Coinbase’s rapid growth in hosting has to do with the famous Grayscale Trust.
In June 2004, Barry Silbert, a former investment banker, set up SecondMarket, a private equity trading platform that tracks shares in hard-to-trade private companies, according to filings. In 2013, SecondMarket created a Bitcoin Investment Trust. That same year, Barry Angel invested in Coinbase, a U.S. -based cryptocurrency trading platform. In 2014, after Barry Silbert spun off Bitcoin Investment Trust, SecondMarket founder Barry Silbert set up Genesis Global Trading, an over-the-counter digital currency Trading platform, and now Grayscale, a Bitcoin Trust. In 2015, DCG was created as the Digital Currency Group, while other businesses such as SecondMarket’s Digital Currency investment fund were spun off into the DCG unit along with Barry Silbert’s angel investment. DCG is now known as the grayscale parent company.
Coinbase is the custodian of its Bitcoin assets, according to how grayscale assets operate.
According to Grayscale’s investment report for the third Quarter of 2020, Grayscale’s investment products had an inflow of $1.05 billion in the third quarter of 2020, the largest capital inflow in the company’s history in a single quarter. More than $2.4 billion has been invested in grayscale products this year, more than double the $1.2 billion that flowed in between 2013 and 2019.
The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, the fastest-growing product, had inflows of $719.3 million in the third quarter, while total Bitcoin assets under management rose 147% in 2020, according to the report.
The price of Bitcoin is soaring
Keep setting new records
The immediate cause of Coinbase’s surge is the stunning performance of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Now Coinbase is filing for an IPO just as the price of Bitcoin is soaring. In recent days, bitcoin prices have set records.
Just two days ago, Bitcoin passed the $20,000 mark, its highest level since its inception. Before the market could catch its breath, however, the price of bitcoin broke through the $21,000, $22,000 and $23,000 barrier. Bitcoin is up more than 200% so far this year.