The milestone for cryptocurrency- Coinbase went IPO
As the first cryptocurrency exchange going IPO, Coinbase shares, according to CNBC, closed at $328.28 in their Nasdaq debut on April 14th, giving the cryptocurrency exchange an initial market cap of $85.8 billion on a fully diluted basis. Its debut has written down a new page for blockchain and cryptocurrency. In recent years, especially in the past few months, Bitcoin has surprised not only the investors but also the general public. Just as people’s view on Bitcoin hasn’t changed, some of them aren’t so confident about the future of Coinbase.
Why is Coinbase able to be the first exchange to go public?
If you ranked by trading volume, according to the Coin market cap, Coinbase is only at the 25th seat, and if ranked by weekly visit it’s at the 5th seat. Even using the exchange score, which is a methodology on Coin market cap to evaluate exchange, Coinbase is still the second having Binance leading the board. However, the most important thing in the financial industry has been ignored, which is the regulation. In a very long time which might still be the case is that anything that is related to blockchain and cryptocurrency has high chances that violate the regulation. One of the biggest reasons that Coinbase is the pioneer is because it follows the rule, which also means not selling a lot of products, following the laws, cooperating with all kinds of due diligence, and being closed with the government owing certificates in multiple states in the US.
But what is real? A pioneer or just a frenzy?
Coinbase was founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, offering cryptocurrency trade service, up to now it has extended its service to investment, research and subscription. Its first quarterly report released last week states that the increase in profit has grown 847%. People who believe in Coinbase said Coinbase is the pioneer and the leader for the whole industry, and the revenue for the exchange has outperformed other traditional exchanges. On the other hand, there are people who claim that the IPO is just taking the opportunity the ride to the recent success of Bitcoin, and sooner or later, the wave will pass.
All in all, we can’t predict the future or at least I can’t, we’ll wait for the validation from the market. But one thing for sure, the life and death of Coinbase is strongly tied with Bitcoin and Etherium. With Tesla and Square buying Bitcoin and Coinbase getting listed, we’re indeed witnessing the disruption of financial markets.
Learn more at https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/14/coinbase-to-debut-on-nasdaq-in-direct-listing.html
