Coinbase went public on April 14, 2021, via a direct listing on the Nasdaq at a reference price of $250 per share. It opened trading at $381, briefly giving the company a valuation exceeding $100 billion — making it one of the most valuable public companies in the US on its first day. Founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, Coinbase had grown from a simple Bitcoin buying app to the largest regulated crypto exchange in the United States.
The public listing was a watershed moment for crypto. Having a major crypto company trade on the Nasdaq alongside Apple and Google legitimized the entire industry in the eyes of institutional investors, regulators, and the general public. For the first time, Wall Street analysts were writing earnings reports about a company whose revenue depended entirely on crypto trading volume. Coinbase became a proxy stock for the crypto market itself.
The bear market tested Coinbase severely. Revenue dropped 75% from peak as trading volumes collapsed. The company laid off over 1,000 employees in 2022. The stock price fell from $350 to under $35 — a 90% drawdown that wiped out most IPO-day buyers. Then the SEC sued Coinbase in June 2023, alleging it operated as an unregistered securities exchange. The existential threat was real: if the SEC won, Coinbase’s core business model might be illegal.
Coinbase survived, recovered, and thrived. The Bitcoin ETF approval in January 2024 was transformative — Coinbase served as custodian for most spot Bitcoin ETFs, earning significant custody fees. Base L2 became one of the most successful chains in crypto. The stock recovered above $300 by late 2024. Brian Armstrong’s strategy of fighting the SEC rather than settling proved vindicated as the regulatory environment shifted under new leadership. Coinbase’s journey from startup to public company to regulatory target to essential infrastructure mirrors the crypto industry’s own maturation.
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