Coinbase files SEC amendment to enter Nasdaq

The US cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase, owned by BBVA since 2015, has registered with the United States Securities Market Commission (SEC) an amendment to the prospectus to go public on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, specifying that shareholders of the company will resell up to 114.85 million Class A shares, which will trade under the symbol ‘COIN’.

The transaction will be carried out through the direct listing mechanism, less expensive than traditional IPOs, since it is characterized by the sale of existing shares held by shareholders instead of the issuance of new titles, and by which companies can be listed without increasing capital and without the services of a bank that acts as an intermediary or subscriber of the operation, thus avoiding the ‘roadshow’ and setting an initial price.

“Registered shareholders may choose to sell their Class A common shares covered by this prospectus to the extent that they determine,” the company notes.

Participation in the market

Coinbase clarifies in the prospectus that it has class A and class B common shares, with identical rights, except with respect to voting and conversion rights, since each class A share has the right to one vote, while each share Class B is entitled to 20 votes and is convertible at any time into Class A ordinary shares.

Thus, holders of outstanding class B common shares own approximately 99.2 % of the voting power of Coinbase’s outstanding capital stock.

Coinbase warns that “there is currently no public market for class A common shares”, although it stresses that both classes of securities have a history of trading in private transactions, which in the first quarter of 2021 registered a price lower than $ 200  and the higher of $ 375.01, which means a weighted average price of $ 343.58.

K. Tovar

Source: dpa