Source/LongHash
Source/LongHash
Interestingly, Coinbase focused on serving U.S. customers in the early days, and its influence on the global blockchain industry has grown in recent years. Recently, with the scrambling of institutional investors on Wall Street in the United States, the price of Bitcoin (Bitcoin) accelerated its rise in January 2021 and exceeded $40,000 a piece, breaking through a ten-year historical high. As of January 14, the market value of Bitcoin was about 695.5 billion US dollars, second only to the Internet giant Facebook, more than the market value of the Chinese Internet company Alibaba.
secondary title
A financial service platform that transforms into a new paradigm
2018 was a time point for Coinbase. A total of US$300 million in Series E financing led by Tiger Global Management allowed Coinbase to obtain a valuation of US$8 billion at that time. Since then, rumors of Coinbase's IPO have been circulating.
More than two years after obtaining financing, Coinbase did not rush to go public, but started the layout of the board and the acquisition and merger of start-up companies, and expanded its business territory and valuation. Through reorganization of business modules and acquisitions, the outline of the new generation of Coinbase has gradually become clear. For example, upgrading the old version of the GDAX exchange to upgrade the trading business for Coinbase Pro, expanding its market share through the acquisition of trading infrastructure such as Tagomi and Routefire, etc.
Three years after the financing, Coinbase has gradually developed from an exchange focusing on digital currency to a comprehensive service provider of digital currency, and its valuation has increased accordingly.
secondary title
The Board of Directors ushered in a sea change
Before Coinbase submitted its S-1 listing document, its board members and management structure underwent substantial adjustments. At present, the board of directors is composed of 2 founders, well-known Internet venture capitalists and directors of several well-known Internet listed companies, a total of 9 members. Four of them were newly appointed as members of the board of directors in 2020, and board members of well-known emerging listed companies such as DoorDash and Snowflake and founders of early investment institutions appeared to escort their strategic decisions.
A big change in the management of Coinbase is making the final preparations for its listing.
secondary title
Market evaluation is mixed
Blockchain and cryptocurrency have always been controversial. Matt Huang (an angel investor of ByteDance), the co-founder of blockchain venture capital firm Paradigm (Paradigm Capital, a venture capital founded by the co-founder of Coinbase), once commented on cryptocurrency It is an industry that is overestimated by insiders and underestimated by outsiders. The same could happen with the upcoming listing of Coinbase, where cryptocurrency enthusiasts are wildly optimistic and conservatives see the digital currency experiment as a farce.
Blockchain practitioners also give different interpretations of Coinbase's valuation. Messari analyst Mira Christanto gave a valuation of US$28 billion, and the famous derivatives exchange FTX also launched the Pre-IPO token product in December. As of January 14, its market valuation was about 74.7 billion Dollar. These two figures are 3.5 times and 9.97 times the valuation of Coinbase's E-round financing three years ago. The blockchain media Bankless has given a valuation of up to 100 billion US dollars, and many practitioners in the blockchain industry have given positive market expectations, believing that the listing of Coinbase will have a long-term positive impact on the entire digital currency industry.
In 2021, the institutionalization process of the digital currency industry will accelerate. In addition to Coinbase's listing application, Internet giant Facebook's stable currency project Diem (formerly Libra) is also expected to be launched in the first quarter. With the entry of giants and the sharp rise in the price of Bitcoin, the voice of mainstream media outside the industry has also shifted from "air bubble" to "technological revolution". Although market expectations vary, the financial interest rate business, which has survived for thousands of years, is facing challenges from this generation of "futurists" in the context of accelerating "digitalization" in the world.
LongHash, Use data to understand the blockchain.
