Digital Coin Exchange

COIN / CoinBase
Coinbase has officially filed to go public. Coinbase plans to list its shares on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol "COIN."

Coinbase reporting $193B in total transaction volume and ~$1B in gross transaction revenues for 2020, implying a fee capture over $5,000 per million. For reference, this is more than 1,000 times greater than the fee capture for listed derivatives.

Coinbase 's S-1 filing reveals that 62% of trading volume came from institutions in 2020, up from 31% in 2018

Coinbase is in some ways a perfect example of that trend. It was founded by Brian Armstrong, who as an engineer at Airbnb who wanted an easier way to incorporate Bitcoin into transactional systems on the Internet. Brian was joined by co-founder Fred Ehrsam, a computer scientist and former currency trader. The two of them have quickly built Coinbase into one of the leading Bitcoin platforms in the market.

Coinbase offers three important features: an online wallet to store Bitcoin; a merchant platform that allows services to accept Bitcoin as payment; and a service that allows individuals and merchants to buy/sell Bitcoin into fiat currencies. Coinbase is located in San Francisco and the company’s details and key metrics are available on its about page. Coinbase is hiring and their openings are on its jobs page. And of course, they also have a blog.

Coinbase 2020 highlights from the S-1


 * - $1.2 billion revenue
 * - $322 million income
 * - 2.8 million active users
 * - $90 billion AUM
 * - 7,000 institutional customers
 * - Brian Armstrong made $60 million last year