CNBC’s Ryan NeuNer, who hosts CryptoTrader, has promised to release details on the anticipated Coinbase Initial Public Offering.
CNBC Cryptotrader exposes details of the Coinbase IPO raise tomorrow on a Cryptotrader exclusive. pic.twitter.com/YG4UOP3ju8
— Ran NeuNer (@cryptomanran) October 25, 2018
CNBC previously reported that Coinbase was likely to take the “most obvious path” and become a public company.
According to screencaps published along with the tweet, Coinbase has approximately 25 million users, around 600,000 of whom trade monthly. Coinbase earned almost half a billion dollars last year, 80% of which was from consumers. The firm’s recent announcement that it had been approved as an independent custodian in New York will likely only improve its revenues.
The IPO prospects of Coinbase are interesting. It will be one of the first major stock symbols to be directly tied to the value and performance of crypto assets, in that the performance of the company very much relies on the health of the crypto economy. At the same time, it raises the question as to why investors wouldn’t simply invest in the currencies themselves as opposed to investing in one of a host of companies who facilitate acquisition, stewardship, and trading of such currencies.
In recent months, crypto companies have floated the idea of pursuing initial public offerings, including Bitmain. The new reality offers Wall Street investors a chance to play in cryptocurrencies without actually getting their hands dirty in them. It also opens up new capital for the industry, which for years has been limited primarily to existing crypto holders in terms of pools of potential capital.
Ironically, the chaos and corruption of the traditional stock market and banking industry played a major role in the development of Bitcoin. Satoshi’s first block famously included a headline from a recent newspaper of the time:
Now a decade later, companies built on, born and bred of Bitcoin and other cryptos are, in some senses, returning to the fold, offering traditional stocks to traditional investors and financial outfits. We come full circle and the new reality perhaps provide a degree of uncertainty for those who thought they’d figured the market out already.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
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