Coinbase DPO: What this means for Blockchain

Coinbase Global, the leading cryptocurrency exchange platform, started trading on the Nasdaq exchange on Wednesday April 14th, 2021. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the company’s direct listing and shares began trading using the ticker COIN.

This is such a big deal in the cryptocurrency space because this is the first cryptocurrency-management company to go “public”! This is a public declaration that cryptocurrency is very real, there are real profitable companies being created around this space, and that it is here to stay.

Most people have confused Coinbase for doing an IPO rather than a DPO. Before we talk about Coinbase as a company, let’s understand the difference between an IPO and DPO.

A direct public offering (DPO) and an initial public offering (IPO) are similar in the sense that securities, like stock or debt, is sold to investors. The difference between the two is that a DPO sells their stock directly to the public without the use of an underwriter as a middle-man. Cutting out intermediaries from a public offering lowers the cost of “going public” substantially. DPO’s are attractive to small companies and start-ups. Coinbase doing a direct public offering keeps the trend of cutting out the middle man that Blockchain Technology is able to accomplish! Very cool if you ask me.

This company is the pioneer for more potential big companies to go on the stock exchange. Real companies of value are being created for trading cryptocurrency, as well as offering products and means of holding and transferring your funds from one wallet to the next, in a secure digital fashion. Multi-billion dollar companies at that! And their clients holding crypto track their transactions on the Blockchain by going on websites like can Blockchain.com, Etherscan.io, and etc. It’s really happening y’all! Blockchain technology is becoming mainstream!

Here are some facts about Coinbase to help you get a better feel of the company:

• Coinbase is valued at $68 billion on the private markets (more than $100 billion when including the share count)
• Coinbase has more than 56 million users on their platform in over 100 countries
• Coinbase has a diverse selection of services for beginner traders as well as Coinbase Pro for advanced traders
• At the end of 2020, Coinbase reported revenue of $1.14 billion
• The company says up to this point it has never been hacked (thank you Blockchain!)

Continue to do your own research into Coinbase to find out if this is the investment for you. There are many many factors in telling whether or not a stock will be successful and the timing of that success. It takes a lot of fundamental and technical analysis to make the best educated decision. But what I will say is that Coinbase, as a company, is only at the beginning. And it’s bigger than just Coinbase, we haven’t even touched the surface of what Cryptocurrency and Blockchain has to offer the world.