According to Recode[1], Coinbase, the US major cryptocurrency exchange, currently works on a $500 million funding. After the funding completed, Coinbase’s overall valuation reached up to $8 billion. Meanwhile, the valuation almost hits the brand value of Goldman Sachs which worth in $8.2 billion, and surpasses Dell and PayPal.
(Figure 1)
This 6-year-old company has successfully become one of the most valuated startups in the United States with constant sharp growth after succeeding in each funding round. The rumor says that after the rapid uptrend of Bitcoin market, Coinbase is expected to be listed on stock exchange, which may cause a positive impact on the legalization of the cryptocurrency market overview. Every move Coinbase made also affects the cryptocurrency market such as the uptrend of Ethereum Classic since launched on Coinbase, whereas it so far has only 5 major cryptocurrencies supported, including Bitcoin, hard fork Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litcoin, and Ethereum Classic.
Coinbase had in total 6 funding rounds in the past 6 years. Since 2018, Coinbase has never paused to interview new investors and expects the next round, purposely to clear up current shareholders from the table. The investor Coinbase concerned in this case is Tiger Global, a hedge fund institution based in New York, with $500 million. Many think that $250 million of the fund will be deposited into the Coinbase’s account, and the rest to repurchase the shares from existing shareholders. The amount has not yet been finalized.
Coinbase has always been working on “licensing”. It firstly obtained BitLicense from New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), later acquiring a fully licensed securities firm. (What about Binance which has average daily trading volume $600–700 million? Think about it). Coinbase itself claimed $8 billion valuation as when [2] it has acquired the mining firm Earn for $120 million on April 2018. The Earn’s shareholders received a portion of Coinbase’s shares instead of cash. The estimate of Coinbase’s $8 billion valuation at the time eventually was not recognized by Earn. In fact, the Coinbase [3] “doubled its user base from late 2016 to the end of last year, while bitcoin price rose from less than $1,000 to its highest point, near $20,000.” (CNBC)
This investor, Tiger Global a 16-year firm had used to operate several large investments that have shocked the industry, including $2 billion shares in the music firm Spotify, India’s transportation application Ola, and ecommerce firm Flipkart. Some rumors say Tiger Global has exited from the last two firms, earning a net profit of $1 billion.
According to PitchBook, Tiger Global has invested in at least 24 venture investments worldwide in 2018. Latterly Tiger Global seems have great interest in cryptocurrency. Just a few days before the news of the collaboration with Coinbase, Tiger Global just invested $245 million in the payment platform Stripe. [4] Coinbase’s shareholders include personal investor Andreessen Horowitz, the firm Union Square Venture, private equity firm IVP and the incubator firm Y Combinator and surprisingly NYSE. (Crunchbase)
Source & Reference:
[1] Theodore Schleifer, Coinbase, the startup at the core of the crypto craze, is now considered an $8 billion company, Oct 2, 2018 https://www.recode.net/2018/10/2/17928274/coinbase-tiger-global-8-billion-funding-deal
[2] Earn.com joins Coinbase, Apr 17, 2018 https://news.earn.com/earn-com-joins-coinbase-a282a36411d2
[3] Kate Rooney (CNBC), Coinbase: A bitcoin start-up spreading its bets to dominate cryptocurrency economy, May 22, 2018 https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/22/coinbase-a-bitcoin-start-up-spreading-its-bets-on-the-crypto-economy.html
[4] Crunchbase :Coinbase investors https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/coinbase/investors/investors_list#section-investors