Coinbase to go public on April 14! Announces Q1 earnings ahead of schedule -

Cryptocurrency giant Coinbase announced on Thursday that the S-1 registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding its proposed direct public listing of its Class A common stock has officially become effective. Coinbase expects its Class A common stock to be listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on April 14, 2021, under the ticker symbol "COIN."

The crypto exchange had previously expected to go public in March, with Coinbase sending its draft registration for a public offering to the SEC in December, with the company potentially being valued at $100 billion at the time of its initial public offering (IPO).

Founded in 2012, Coinbase is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the United States, with Coinbase Pro processing more than $3 billion in transactions per day, according to CoinMarketCap.

The company also revealed that it will share first-quarter financial results eight days ahead of schedule, on April 6.

The announcement is unusual and significant because it will come just days before the company sells shares to the public, and will therefore provide new guidance for investors seeking to determine the value of Coinbase’s stock.

The announcement comes weeks after Coinbase released its financial results for 2020. The company posted revenue of more than $1.2 billion in 2020 and achieved a profit of $322 million, a significant jump from 2019, when Coinbase posted revenue of $522 million and a loss of $30 million.

The upcoming earnings will mark the first time Coinbase has publicly disclosed results for a specific quarter. Given the massive crypto bull run that has been underway since December, the company’s first quarter is likely to be its best yet, with the vast majority of its revenue coming from trading commissions.

Coinbase’s entry into the public markets would be a major milestone for the cryptocurrency industry as a whole and would also provide insights into Wall Street’s reaction to an industry with unique cycles and volatility.

In Coinbase’s case, the company isn’t pursuing a conventional IPO, which would require working with Wall Street banks to arrange for deep-pocketed investors to be the first to buy new shares. Instead, with a direct listing, Coinbase will not issue new shares but instead provide a vehicle for employees and early investors to sell their shares at a price determined by the market.

Last month, Coinbase took another unusual step on its path to becoming a public company by hosting a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” forum. The AMA is the social media equivalent of a “road show,” a traditional practice in which pre-IPO companies pitch their shares to wealthy investors, with Coinbase CEO Armstrong answering questions from Reddit users on everything from customer service to the novel cryptocurrency Dogecoin.

Coinbase’s decision to release its earnings report ahead of its public listing is also highly unusual, in part because companies about to go public must abide by a “quiet period” mandated by the SEC, which severely limits the scope of their public communications.

In this case, the earnings release appears to qualify for a quiet period exemption, which allows a company to release non-forward-looking information arising in the ordinary course of business.