Yesterday, the American exchange Coinbase became the first crypto company to trade on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange. The company went through a direct listing of securities at a reference price of $ 250 per share.
The Coinbase example could be a start to the movement to the stock market for other cryptocurrency giants. At least five well-known crypto startups from today’s rankings are considering this prospect or are already in the process of publicly listing their shares. Let’s talk about them in more detail.
Coinbase has already been listed on the Nasdaq. The preliminary price of the shares started at $ 250, but as a result, the figure quickly rose to a peak of $ 424. Then the rate traditionally dipped and stabilized. As a result, the shares were fixed at $ 328.
Kraken
Kraken has a chance to be the next IPO favorite. The exchange is reportedly aiming to grow towards a $ 20 billion market cap. The head of Kraken Jesse Powell shared his plans for the future in a recent interview with CNBC. Here is his line, quoted by Decrypt.
We hope that next year we will be able to go public. This will likely be a direct listing similar to Coinbase.
Like Coinbase, Kraken saw record trading volumes in the first quarter of this year, and new signups for the platform have quadrupled since the second half of 2020. But Powell also noted that the company is in no rush to IPO and intends to first see how Coinbase will be evaluated by stock market traders.
This means that what happens to Coinbase shares after the listing will be carefully evaluated by analysts of other companies. Still, this is the first IPO of a cryptocurrency company, so it is difficult to predict interest in it.
eToro
In March, Israeli crypto broker eToro announced that it would go public through a $ 10 billion merger with a special acquisition company called FinTech Acquisition Corp. This will happen with the support of SoftBank and entrepreneur Betsy Cohen.
EToro’s existing shareholders are expected to retain about 90 percent of the company’s shares following the merger, which is tentatively completed in the third quarter of 2021.
eToro was one of the first regulated brokerage firms in Europe to offer cryptocurrency services back in 2013. In 2020, the company received a broker and dealer license in the United States from FINRA regulator, which allowed it to expand the range of services and products for American clients.
BlockFi
Rumors of a BlockFi listing began spreading in July 2020, when the crypto company posted a CFO job to «guide and position the team for the late stages of investing, acquisitions and / or IPOs.» In an interview with The Block, BlockFi CEO Zach Prince said the exchange could go public in the second half of 2021.
NFT Investments
Two weeks ago, many cryptocurrency users hadn’t even heard of NFT Investments, and some thought the firm’s April 1 IPO was a joke. But on April 13, a startup specializing in investing in unique NFT tokens raised £ 35 million – or $ 48 million – thanks to a listing on the Aquis Growth Market in London.
NFT Investments itself was founded by the co-founders of Argo Blockchain (ARB), which is listed on the LSE.
Bakkt
Trading platform Bakkt published information about a possible IPO at the beginning of this year. The company will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) through a $ 2.1 billion merger between SPAC and VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings.
Recall that Bakkt, owned by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), launched its trading platform only last year. The assessment of Bakkt’s activities today is very high: so far, the volume of investments from professional investors in the exchange has exceeded the $ 300 million mark.
We believe that Coinbase’s debut on Nasdaq has truly been a landmark event for the cryptocurrency industry. Now the attitude of large professional investors to the niche will be completely different, in addition, more and more companies will go to IPOs and present themselves to the inhabitants of Wall Street. This means that coins on the blockchain will become more famous, and their mass adoption in the world will be much closer.
