Coinbase Global Inc, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, announced on Wednesday that recent private sector transactions priced the firm at $68 billion this year, ahead of a planned stock market listing.
The staggering valuation demonstrates how Coinbase’s perceived value has risen in lockstep with the rise in the price of the cryptocurrency bitcoin.
Coinbase’s stock in the private sector traded at a weighted average price of $343.58 in the first quarter of 2021 through March 15, according to a regulatory filing. Coinbase’s shares traded at an average of $28.83 per share in the third quarter, valuing the company at $5.3 billion.
In the space of a few months, its value has increased by nearly 13-fold. Coinbase was estimated at a little over $8 billion during its most recent private fundraise in October 2018, according to data platform PitchBook.
Coinbase’s implied value exceeds that of the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, Intercontinental Exchange Inc (ICE), Nasdaq Inc, and the London Stock Exchange, is $4 billion less than that of the futures exchange operator CME Group.
Coinbase’s total market capitalization is almost 53 times its sales in 2020. According to Refinitiv numbers, ICE currently trades at a price-to-sales ratio of 10.67.
Coinbase’s new filing also indicates that the company is more certain that the listing will be accepted by regulators.
A successful listing by Coinbase, whose company is predominantly based on digital currencies, will be a watershed moment for cryptocurrency proponents competing for mainstream investor, regulator, and public acceptance for a market that has struggled to gain traction.
It could also be interpreted as a tacit regulatory approval of Coinbase’s platform’s properties. More than 43 million people use the service in more than 100 countries.
Coinbase did not say whether it had earned permission from regulators to trade cryptocurrencies that have been listed as shares in the United States in its most recent filing.
