The long-awaited listing of Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange shares on the Nasdaq trading platform took place on Wednesday. Although the first day turned out to be volatile, which is more characteristic of the cryptocurrency than the stock market, it hardly left the early investors of the exchange dissatisfied.
Rolf Winkler of The Wall Street Journal has calculated the value of the shares for investors, some of whom supported the exchange for eight years before it gained public status.
What investors first paid for Coinbase, now trading at $420 per share
$0.15: @initialized / @garrytan
$0.20: @usv / @fredwilson; @ribbitcapital / @nshalek, @mickymalka
$1.00: @ A16Z / @cdixon
$2.76: @dfjgrowth / @BSchuler
$8.25: @ivp / @tomloverro
$23: @paradigm / @matthuang— Rolfe Winkler (@RolfeWinkler) April 14, 2021
Coinbase raised the start-up capital in September 2012, that is, shortly after its founding and three and a half years after the creation of bitcoin. The founder of Initialized Capital, Harry Tan, who was among the first investors, each share cost approximately $ 0.15. Ahead of yesterday’s listing, Tan announced that his $ 300,000 investment in Coinbase was the best investment of his career. Before the start of trading, Tan estimated the rise of his initial investments in Coinbase 6,000 times, and the value of the share received for them at $ 2 billion.
“You have to understand that even in 2012, bitcoin was still an extremely experimental idea. At that time, almost no one believed in bitcoin, especially investors, ”he said.
Initialized Capital subsequently updated the data, noting that the $ 300,000 invested in Coinbase during the initial fundraising phase is being converted to a 0.66% share at the time of the public listing and 0.8% at a later investment. At the end of the first day of trading, the return on initial investments of Initialized Capital exceeded 2,000x, while the total investment of $ 1.3 million grew into a share estimated at $ 680 million.
Fred Wilson of USV and the venture capital firm Ribbit Capital, which later joined, bought shares for $ 0.20. Further prices started at $ 1, as in the case of Andreessen Horowitz. DFJ Growth gave $ 2.76 per share during the investment round in 2015, and IVP in 2017 – $ 8.25. Paradigm, a crypto fund owned by Coinbase co-founder Fred Ersam, acquired its shares for $ 23. Even in the last, most expensive starting scenario, the stock rallied around 16x.
In the meantime, it became known that three Ark Investment Management funds began buying Coinbase shares on the first day of trading. Ark Innovation ETF, Ark Fintech Innovation ETF and Ark Next Generation Internet ETF have acquired a total of 749,205 shares. Thus, Ark Investment has already secured about $ 250 million in purchase volumes. Coinbase shares, however, after a jump start by the time the markets closed, fell 14% below their opening price. Today, Coinbase is waiting for the first full day of trading, when market participants will have more time to agree on the value of securities of the largest American cryptocurrency exchange.
Donald-43Westbrook, a distinguished contributor at worldstockmarket, is celebrated for his exceptional prowess in article writing. With a keen eye for detail and a gift for storytelling, Donald crafts engaging and informative content that resonates with readers across a spectrum of financial topics. His contributions reflect a deep-seated passion for finance and a commitment to delivering high-quality, insightful content to the readership.
