Coinbase, the biggest US-based cryptocurrency exchange has disclosed its detailed plan for the upcoming direct listing on the stock market by Nasqad. Coinbase submitted an S-1 report to the US SEC outlining key information such as revenue and ownership structure for investors to carry out due diligence on the company.

According to the document, Coinbase has 43 million verified users and an average of 2.8 million transactions per month. In 2020, the company returned a net income of $322 million from total revenue of $3.4 billion, with transaction fees constituting 96% of the net revenue.

Coinbase which makes most of its profit from bitcoin and Ethereum transactions, also saw a 56% increment on its $1.1 billion direct revenue for 2020 compared to $482 million in 2019.

The company incurred a total of $880 million in expenses for 2020, most of which went to sales, general administrative expenses, and research and development. Transaction reversal costs miners fees, staking fees, and verification expenses constituted $135 million of the total expenses,

Coinbase also made $533 million in 2019, against $579 million in operational and development costs, leading to losses totaling $46 million.

Coinbase to Usher Crypto’s Real Mainstream Adoption

The report indicates that much of the revenue for 2020 was generated from institutional investors’ activity in the crypto market but with higher retail activity in Q4 2020 than in previous quarters.

Coinbase’s debut as the first publicly listed crypto-exchange in the US is estimated to be one of 2021’s largest new listings of the tech industry. This will have a huge positive impact on the crypto market investors and blockchain technology backers.

According to the crypto trader and analyst Rekt Capital, the public listing will officially open up cryptocurrencies to the public.

“Coinbase going public is another way of saying crypto is going public.”

Coinbase Becomes Decentralized

The update comes a month after Coinbase chose Nasdaq as its direct listing avenue on February 1, following a secondary Coinbase stock launch by Nasdaq Private Market on January 25.

Now that Coinbase has moved to a remote-first environment without headquarters in any city, the company is referring to itself as a decentralized company. Up to 95% of Coinbase employees have the option to work at home, in a post-office world setting, or a mix of both.

“since we’ve made the decision to go remote-first we’ve decentralized ourselves; even after people can safely return to offices, the executive team has no plans to be “in-office” on a regular basis,  and none of them currently live in San Francisco.”

Source: https://zycrypto.com/what-coinbase-going-public-could-do-for-crypto/

With 106 million global crypto users as of January 2021 and a crypto population that has now surpassed 100 million, a financial expert noted that central banks must now be wary of certain crypto investors. In a new seminar held by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, part-time professor, Mohamed El-Erian, who is also Chief Economic Adviser at Allianz said that Central Banks should be careful about three specific groups of Bitcoin investors. 

He explained that while the first group of people is investing for positive reasons, the second is motivated by negative factors to adopt Bitcoin. The positive investors “truly believe Bitcoins will become money ”or “a currency as opposed to a commodity.” 

However, El-Erian cautioned that central bank authorities must keep watch on those “being pushed out of everything else and pushed into Bitcoin”, forming the second group that the expert earlier mentioned. 

They look to Bitcoin in order to protect themselves from government investment options, which some investors believe has been “artificially jacked up.” Interestingly, a recent survey found that people aged over 55 opted for Bitcoin due to a fear of currency devaluation – as central banks have historically printed more money to boost economies. The expert said that such people are forced to invest in the asset because “they don’t know how else to mitigate risk.” 

Do you really want to invest in a government bond whose price has been? So ‘let’s diversify, let’s put 2% into Bitcoins.’

El-Erian further categorized “speculators” as the third type of investors, who face profits and losses albeit “in a single day.” According to him, all three types of investors “should be concerning to central banks.”

When it’s trading above $50,000, all three messages are problematic for central banks. So, we are going to see central banks look increasingly at cryptocurrencies as something they should be involved in, and not just stand on the sidelines.

Source: https://ambcrypto.com/3-types-of-bitcoin-investors-that-should-be-concerning-to-central-banks

Now defunct crypto exchange Mt Gox’s appointed trustee, Nobuaki Kobayashi, revealed that the Tokyo District Court has not found any grounds for disapproving a previously submitted draft rehabilitation plan. According to the latest update posted on 25 February, the court approved a repayment process schedule that Attorney Kobayashi proposed.

According to the schedule, the trustee will finalize some rehabilitation creditors who will get voting rights to vote on the proposed refund plan on 24 March. The voting deadline is on 8 October, after which creditors will discuss the compensation plan on 20 October.

For now, the method and timing of voting on the rehabilitation plan will be announced to creditors via MTGOX’s website. Kobayashi said that creditors will be able to vote online, by mail, or in person when they meet on 20 October. 

On 15 December, Mt. Gox trustee submitted a draft rehabilitation plan to compensate victims of the infamous exchange hacks. At the time, Tokyo District Court was planning to review the plan to determine whether to proceed with the rehabilitation.

The exchange’s bankruptcy trust is yet to distribute roughly $630 million and 150,000 BTC. What is more important is the fact that close to 24,000 victims of the hack, who are still waiting for their refund, have not been repaid yet.  

Years after Mt. Gox suffered its infamous hacks, which occurred in 2011 and later in 2014, the exchange still continues to make headlines. As of 21 September 2020, leaked documents as part of the FinCEN investigation found the involvement of traditional financial firms, including one Mayzus Financial Services,  and its connection to the Mt Gox hack. 

Earlier this year, on 6 January, crypto tracking firm Whale Alert identified a certain transaction connected to an Mt. Gox address that got people’s attention. About 450.00034 BTC worth more than $14 million at the time was moved from a Binance address to a Mt. Gox cold wallet. 

Source: https://ambcrypto.com/150000-bitcoins-in-question-mt-gox-creditors-to-vote-on-draft-compensation-plan