The exchange announced in a blog post that its registration statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was declared effective on April 1, 2021, paving the way for Coinbase to make its trading debut.

The firm further said that it expects its shares to start trading in the next two weeks.

“Coinbase anticipates that its Class A common stock will begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol “COIN” on April 14, 2021.”

Coinbase direct listing

The exchange initially planned to list in March but got delayed due to some issues. Cryptonary reported last month that the securities regulator was reviewing Coinbase’s plans to go public via a direct listing.

According to previous filings, Coinbase is not planning to raise any new capital from the filing. 

Companies generally do direct listings if they don’t want to dilute the existing shares by creating new ones or to avoid lockup agreements. 

This listing will allow Coinbases investors or even employers holding shares of the exchange to directly sell them to the public. This would not be the case if Coinbase had chosen to go public via the traditional initial public offering (IPO) route.

Coinbase will be the first company to do a major direct listing on the Nasdaq. Similar listings were previously done on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Companies that took this route include Slack Technologies Inc., Spotify Technology SA, and Asana Inc. among others.

Coinbase share price

The reference price for Coinbase shares will not be revealed until the night before the exchange goes public, according to sources familiar with the matter.

In February, the shares of Coinbase traded on the Nasdaq Private Market in a range that valued the exchange at $77 billion. At the time, Coinbase’s private shares were exchanging hands for $303.

The trading platform disclosed in a regulatory filing that it has a valuation of $67.6 billion.

Founded in 2012, the exchange has 43 million clients in more than 100 countries and offers its services to both institutional and retail clients.

The exchange seems to be in a good financial position. It revealed in a public filing that generated $1.3 billion in revenue in 2020 and made a profit of $322 million. In the previous year, Coinbase suffered a loss of about $30 million. 

However, the exchange has not been immune from the scrutiny of financial regulators as it gears up for a much-anticipated public listing.

Coinbase and the CFTC

Coinbase was recently ordered by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to pay a $6.5 million fine.

The exchange is said to have traded a small amount of cryptocurrency with itself between 2015 and 2018 using automated programs.