Coinbase has announced they are going public April 14, 2021 at an expected valuation of $100B. See the Coinbase S-1 Prospectus here. This valuation certainly seems driven by Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies trading at all time highs. In 2020, Coinbase generated over $1.2B in revenue and over $322M in net income.
I had never been interested in cryptocurrencies since I had never seen it as an investment. The fact that cryptos are not based on any underlying asset made it difficult for me to understand what value they had. However a company like Coinbase that is generating revenue from holding or trading assets I can understand.
I found it interesting that I could get free cryptocurrencies by creating an account on Coinbase. This requires watching a number of videos about how cryptos work. I received $5 in Bitcoin for signing up and then an additional $31 in other cryptos. I then traded the other cryptos I received for Bitcoin. This seems like a cool incentive for signing up for an account similar to how PayPal gave new users $5 back in the 90s.
