Rather than go public this month, Coinbase will now do so in April, Bloomberg reported.
The company’s plans for a direct listing, as opposed to a traditional initial public offering (IPO), are being reviewed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the report stated.
Coinbase’s backers have thus far registered as many as 114.9 shares, taking advantage of the rules saying that direct listings can let investors sell their shares immediately, as opposed to waiting for the lockup period to expire, as would happen during a traditional IPO, according to Bloomberg.
Coinbase’s debut will be the first direct listing to take place on the Nasdaq, as all the previous such listings were on the New York Stock Exchange, including notable ones like Spotify, Slack, Asana, and Palantir, Bloomberg reported.
Financial documents show Coinbase has been making money, unlike other companies going into their public debuts. Last year, the company went from a loss to a profit and came out on the other end with $1.14 billion in revenue, according to Bloomberg.
The shares have been trading hands at prices ranging from $200 to $375.01, according to the filing, per Bloomberg.
The volume-weighted average price per share was $343.58 from January to March 15, and that would lead to a valuation for Coinbase of around $67.6 billion based on the number of shares outstanding as of Monday (March 15) — although the full value, with employee incentive plans and restricted stock units, would be much higher, Bloomberg reported.
Coinbase’s filing shows some of the strengths and pitfalls of being a company facilitating the growth of such an ecosystem as cryptocurrency, PYMNTS reported last month.
On the one hand, the numbers show how popular crypto has been lately, with bitcoin seeing its usual volatility, but also an increasing number of transactions.
But on the other hand, the company had to state up front in its filing that certain bugs and software operations have been identified, along with the potential for hacking in some cases.
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