Coinbase Skyrockets In Nasdaq Listing, Landing $105 Billion Valuation On First Day Of Trading

Coinbase Skyrockets In Nasdaq Listing, Landing $105 Billion Valuation On First Day Of Trading

Share to Linkedin Brian Armstrong, founder of Coinbase, photographed for Forbes by Jamel Toppin in January 2020. Listed on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker COIN, shares started trading at about 1:30 p. m. EDT Wednesday and immediately surged to a price of more than $398, eclipsing the $250 reference price set on Tuesday. Eschewing the traditional initial public offering that enlists investment banks as intermediaries and underwriters to sell shares ahead of trading, San Francisco-based Coinbase opted instead for a direct listing, selling 114. 9 million shares on Wednesday directly to the public. "I wanted there to be just a true market on day one that set the price, not something that was set behind closed doors," Coinbase's billionaire CEO, Brian Armstrong, said on CNBC Wednesday, calling the direct listing "more true to the ethos of crypto." Ahead of its listing, Coinbase reported first-quarter revenue that climbed nearly 900% from $190. 6 million in the same period last year, blowing past the $585 million it nabbed in the fourth quarter. "The Coinbase [listing] is a watershed moment and historical event for the crypto industry and something Wall Street will be laser focused on to gauge investor appetite going forward,"