Coinbase shares are indicated to open at about $360 per share.

The much-awaited day of Coinbase’s listing is finally upon us. Trading in COIN, the ticker symbol assigned to Coinbase, is yet to commence. However, CNBC reported that the shares in the crypto exchange, which are to be directly listed, are likely to open at about $360 per share, though Nasdaq provided a reference price of $250 on Tuesday. (CNBC)

All you need to know:

• Coinbase is a Silicon Valley cryptocurrency exchange
• It was co-founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong, currently CEO.
• It currently has 56 million users, up from 43 million at the end of 2020, and 32 million the year before.
• In a recent filing, the company said of its preliminary first-quarter results that revenue surged 9 times from a year ago to $ 1.8 billion, and net income rocketed from $ 32 million to between $ 730 million and $ 800 million
• For the full year of 2020, revenue doubled to $ 1.28 billion, while the company pivoted from a loss in 2019 to a profit of $ 322.3 million
• The company has admitted that its performance is highly correlated with crypto prices
• The majority of transactions on the exchange involved bitcoin or ethereum
• In 2018, in the course of private funding round, Coinbase was valued at $ 8 billion
• The crypto exchange has opted to go public via a direct listing rather than a traditional initial public offering
• At NASDAQ’s reference price of $ 250 Coinbase would be valued at $ 65 billion
• Leeor Shimron, an analyst at FundStrat Global Advisors: “Coinbase’s direct listing is a watershed moment for the crypto industry.”
• Wedbush analyst Dan Ives: “Cryptocurrencies are now mainstream…Coinbase is a foundational piece of the crypto ecosystem.”
• The price of bitcoin hit a new all-time high of more than $64,000 today in anticipation of the Coinbase listing.

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Image of Bryan Armstrong: Flickr