How much is Coinbase really worth?
How did the listing on the Nasdaq of the cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase go. Facts, numbers, comparisons and comments
Coinbase, the world's leading cryptocurrency exchange, debuted on Nasdaq yesterday.
Investors initially valued his stock at $ 380, well above the $ 250 reference price. That price placed the company's value at around $ 100 billion. In its latest private funding round in 2018, investors valued Coinbase at $ 8 billion.
However, its closing price ($ 328) was 13.8% lower than the opening price, but 31% higher than the reference price.
Coinbase still ended the day with a valuation of 85.8 billion.
At the end of the first day of trading, over 79 million stocks were traded.
The euphoria for the platform's debut, considered a historic moment for the crypto-universe, yesterday led Bitcoin to set a new all-time high, over $ 64,000.
All the details.
THE DETAILS OF THE QUOTATION
Coinbase's debut on the Nasdaq was undoubtedly characterized by high volatility. The stock price jumped immediately at the opening to $ 381, up 52% from the reference price that had been set by Nasdaq on the eve of $ 250.
In the first few hours of trading, the stock of the cryptocurrency trading platform – not with an official IPO but with a direct quote – flew over $ 400, down to $ 429.54, before dropping below the opening price. at 381, up to an intraday minimum of around 310, to then close at 328.28, a value which gave the platform an initial market capitalization of 85.8 billion.
The closing price was 13.8% lower than the opening price, but 31% higher than the reference price of 250.
HOW MUCH IS IT WORTH?
Coinbase now has a market capitalization of around $ 86 billion. Higher than the value of much older exchanges such as the Intercontinental Exchange, owner of the New York Stock Exchange, which has a market capitalization of $ 67 billion. Or the Nasdaq which has a market capitalization of $ 26 billion.
Coinbase has thus become one of the 150 most valuable corporations in the United States, ahead of Discover Financial Services, First Republic Bank and Nasdaq, the stock exchange on which its shares are traded.
As the BBC points out, the cryptocurrency firm is worth more than oil giant BP.
THE TECHNICAL ANALYSIS
The approximately 100 billion attributed by the market to the ringing of the bell (which then resized in a volatile day that saw the price also reach the 320 area) would be equivalent to a multiple equal to 10 times the turnover, underlined the Sole 24 Ore . Too high? “If we take the average of the companies listed on the Nasdaq, which rely on a price / revenue ratio equal to 4.7 times, yes. If, on the other hand, we compare it to the values of Apple (8) or Google (9), we are in line – explained Eugenio Sartorelli, professional trader and board member of Siat, the Italian company for technical analysis -. But if instead you compare it to stocks like Tesla – which prices 26 times the revenues – or Zoom where we are even at 37 (but maximum of 70), Coinbase would even be at a discount and I would not be surprised if it reached 200 billion. So we need to understand in which group the market will place it, now more and more “creative” in pricing the fundamentals of companies ».
THE ANALYSIS OF THE SUN 24 HOURS
On balance – remarked Il Sole 24 Ore – “the 100 billion area brings Coinbase into the same circle as the great financial giants: just think that Goldman Sachs capitalizes 112 billion and BlackRock 122. A cryptocurrency platform is placed at these values. '80th place among the 500 largest companies on Wall Street (in first place is Apple, which is worth 2.250 billion). Among the 420 companies it has put behind it for now are giants such as Moody's (59) and Twitter (58). In one fell swoop Coinbase at times came to be worth more than Bny Mellon (the oldest bank in the US founded in 1784) and Hewlett-Packard (an IT multinational founded in 1939) combined. Beyond how you want to think, between apocalyptic and integrated, what we saw yesterday is proof that a bridge has been built between the universe of cryptocurrencies and that of traditional finance ".
ARMSTRONG CEO MULTIMILLAR
The listing immediately makes Coinbase co-founder and CEO, 38-year-old Brian Armstrong, a multibillionaire. His stake in the company is in fact worth $ 20 billion.
THE OTHER LARGE INVESTORS
Coinbase's other big investors include venture capital groups Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures and co-founder Fred Ehrsam.
WHAT COINBASE DOES
Founded in 2012 as a way to simplify buying bitcoin by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, Coinbase is the most popular cryptocurrency exchange in the United States and has risen in value alongside the digital currencies bitcoin and ethereum.
The San Francisco-based company boasts 56 million users worldwide and an estimated $ 223 billion in assets on its platform, equivalent to 11.3% of the cryptocurrency market share, as revealed by regulatory documents. .
AND TODAY?
Coinbase shares rose 11.4% to $ 365.50 on Thursday's premarket. At that price, the cryptocurrency exchange platform would be worth more than Nasdaq Inc and Intercontinental Exchange combined.
STILL SOON FOR THE CRYPTOCURRENCIES MARKET
However, Coinbase's debut with a bang does not wipe out the reticence towards the cryptocurrency sector. The voice is given by the president of the Fed, Jerome Powell, who defines them as a "vehicle of speculation". With Powell there are also American and world authorities.
Coinbase co-founder Ehrsam also believes the cryptocurrency market hasn't peaked. "As someone who has worked in cryptocurrencies for 10 years, I have heard this statement hundreds, if not thousands, of times," Ehrshan told CNBC , who expects cryptocurrencies to continue to be traded with high volatility.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/fintech/quanto-vale-davvero-coinbase/ on Thu, 15 Apr 2021 12:39:14 +0000.