Coinbase to Become Publicly Traded, Announces Proposed Direct Listing of Shares

Leading cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global said it intends to become a publicly traded company pursuant to a proposed direct listing of its Class A common stock. On Dec. 17, 2020, Coinbase announced it had confidentially submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The S-1 is not yet publicly available. The firm’s announcement Thursday included no details as to when the stock would be listed or under which ticker.

Coinbase recently announced it had $90 billion in assets on platform at the close of 2020 and 43 million registered users.

By comparison, there are roughly 13 million users on Robinhood, the fintech app embroiled in controversy after abruptly halting trading of GameStop (GME) and other meme stocks.