No, it is not an April fools prank!! On Thursday, April 1, crypto exchange Coinbase announced that it has finally secured the approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and shall finally be heading for the public listing of its shares ahead this month on April 14.

More importantly, Coinbase gets an entry to one of the three major U.S. indexes aka Nasdaq for the direct listing of its Class A Common Stock. Coinbase plans to list its shares under the ticker symbol of COIN as it will register nearly 115 million shares of its common stock.

This is a major milestone and development for Coinbase and the entire cryptocurrency community considering it will open the floodgates for other crypto companies to go public and bridge the gap with the mainstream financial ecosystem.

Coinbase has claimed that currently it has more than 43 million users trading cryptocurrencies across its presence in over 100 countries. However, in its prospectus, Coinbase has declared a potential risk factor of Bitcoin (BTC) price volatility.

During its updated filing last month, the crypto giant revelled that it has potentially reached a fair valuation of $68 billion with each share valued around ~$350. This is based on the company selling its shares in private market which is less indicative of company’s share worth. However, the Nasdaq index will use this as a reference point for public listing of Coinbase shares.

Coinbase A Go-to Destination for Institutional Players

Ever since its inception in 2012, Coinbase has grown very fast especially in the last three years. The company has offering its products and services like crypto custodial services, fund management, and other that cater to the needs of institutional clients.

As a result, Coinbase has become a go-to destination for institutional players as the exchange facilitates many OTC deals. As institutional participation continues to grow further Coinbase and its shareholders will likely benefit going ahead.