Coinbase has filed papers with U.S. regulators to become a publicly traded company as digital currencies continue to march toward mainstream acceptance.
The digital currency exchange is seeking a direct listing, which would allow company insiders and early investors to convert their stakes in Coinbase into publicly traded stock.
In a Thursday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Coinbase also revealed how interest in digital currency is gaining steam on the exchange.
Revenue more than doubled to $1.14 billion in 2020 and the company swung to a profit of $322.3 million after losing tens of millions the previous year.
There were 43 million verified Coinbase users in 2020, with 2.8 million making transactions monthly.
An early digital currency adopter, billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya, tweeted this month that he bought an empty lot in Lake Tahoe using $1.6 million in Bitcoin in 2014. He converted that pricetag to the equivalent of what he would have paid in February, or what he would have in his pocket if he had just held on to his Bitcoin: $27.5 million.
Coinbase Global Inc. is looking to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “COIN.” It won’t raise any proceeds from the listing.