By
Temitope Olatunji
April 18th, 2024
Coinbase is set to go public through a direct listing, which in turn will give Armstrong and other shareholders the right to sell their shares to the public market immediately after the company is listed.
Coinbase CEO and co-founder Brian Armstrong is set to join a list of tech decabillionares as the company prepares to go public in a few weeks. Notably, Armstrong owns 39.6 million Coinbase shares. With the Coinbase shares reportedly trading at $343.58 based on an average private market price this year, his net worth is expected to be around $13.6 billion.
Coinbase is set to go public through a direct listing, which in turn gives Armstrong and other shareholders the right to sell their shares to the public market immediately after the company is listed.
Thanks to the booming cryptocurrency industry particularly Bitcoin and Ethereum, Coinbase has gained huge popularity that has reciprocated to more users. Coinbase is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States by trading volume. According to market analysis provided by CoinGecko, Coinbase Pro ranks the second in terms of volume globally after Binance.
In the past 24 hours, Coinbase Pro had a reported trading volume of $2,601,203,975. The firm supports up to 50 different crypto coins and approximately 152 pairs.
Coinbase CEO and His Company’s Success
Armstrong co-founded the firm back in 2012 after working as an engineer with Airbnb Inc (NASDAQ: ABNB). The firm has grown exponentially over time thanks to the global crypto adoption. The cryptocurrency industry has grown in such a strong demand that institutional investors have rallied to adopt it. The demand has further been fueled by the deflationary fiat currencies as global central banks print money to boost their respective economies.
Notably, Armstrong has in the past led his company in laser focus amid global crisis. In a medium blog post, Armstrong indicated that “Coinbase will remain guided by its mission despite the society issues. It was a time when the United States was facing riots over police brutality to Africa-American people”.
“At Coinbase, we say that we are focused on building. What does this mean? It means we are going to focus on being the best company we can be, and making progress toward our mission, as compared to broader societal issues,” he noted in the blog post.
Coinbase success, however, did not come without struggles. Late last year, the company was accused by the New York Times reporter Nathaniel Popper of discrimination particularly on some communities. However, the company published a medium blog post before hand refuting the claims by the reporter.
In its defense, Coinbase said:
“We are committed to maintaining an environment that is safe, supportive and welcoming to employees of all backgrounds. We do not accept intolerant behavior. And we are committed to the refreshed Belonging, Inclusion and Diversity strategy we rolled out earlier this quarter.”
Read other news from the world of cryptocurrencies here.