Coinbase is going public this week via a direct listing. Coinbase, no doubt, is one of the most high-profile public listings to hit the wall street this year. The leading cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S. Coinbase announced last week that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had approved the company’s direct listing, and shares are scheduled to begin trading on the Nasdaq exchange on April 14 using the ticker COIN.
Coinbase has listed 114,850,769 shares of stock, but we don’t yet know exactly how many will be available for sale, and the company has yet to reveal a proposed stock price. Coinbase is valued at roughly $68 billion on the private markets, but that rises to more than $100 billion when including Coinbase’s fully diluted share count.
The market has historically witnessed a lot of fundraising events, such as ICOs and IEOs. But the arrival of IPOs onto the crypto market is a significant development being led by none other than Coinbase.
Why does the Coinbase IPO matters for the Global Economy?
Coinbase is one of the largest digital assets exchanges in the industry. There is a reason why such significance is being placed by analysts and market players alike on the decision of the Coinbase management team.
The term “Coinbase effect”, which signifies significant price boosts for assets immediately after their listing therein. This may well convert not only onto the exchange’s own shares, but on the cryptocurrency or the digital asset market as a whole.
This will help blockchain companies, in particular companies dealing with cryptos, to gain more exposure, acceptability, and easy access to capital. This will also send a strong signal to governments around the globe who are still not sure on how to approach cryptos, and exchanges envolved in it.
There are countries which are early adopters in terms of regulating such exchanges and putting favourable environments for them. For example, small island country Malta is now the most favourable destination for crypto startups due to its favourable and detailed legislation. Malta is the first and only country to introduce an organized framework for cryptocurrency used to help combat money laundering and financial crime through its MFSA (Malta Financial Services Authority). But, there are countries such as India which is still confused how to approach cryptos and blockchain. In fact, it earlier took steps which forced many crypto startups to shut and move their operations to other countries. The Coinbase IPO will give them a clear message that cryptos are part of the blockchain ecosystem and they need to design and introduce frameworks for cryptos in their existing financial system.