[HN Gopher] Coinbase Announces Listing Date of Its Stock on the ...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Coinbase Announces Listing Date of Its Stock on the Nasdaq
        
       Author : esalazar
       Score  : 84 points
       Date   : 2021-04-01 20:11 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (blog.coinbase.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (blog.coinbase.com)
        
       | superfrank wrote:
       | There was a time when would have loved to buy Coinbase stock.
       | 
       | Just a few years ago, they were by far the easiest was to buy
       | crypto (IMO). At that time they also felt like the most
       | legitimate site and for people who didn't 100% know what they
       | were doing, but wanted to buy some Bitcoin, that perception of
       | legitimacy is important. For those reasons, I feel like they kind
       | of dominated the casual coin holder space, and I think they could
       | justify the fees they were charging.
       | 
       | In the last year or so it feels like that's all changed. Because
       | of things like Apex Crypto, it feels like pretty much every stock
       | broker app will now let you buy Bitcoin and they'll do it with
       | lower fees than Coinbase. It seems like their market (non-crypto
       | people looking to buy crypto) is being eaten alive. I don't
       | understand their value prop or why their higher fees make sense
       | anymore.
       | 
       | I've been burned too many times, so I don't short stocks or buy
       | puts, but I just can't see this being a good buy. Unless they
       | drastically lower their fees, I just don't see them continuing to
       | grow users.
        
         | ryanSrich wrote:
         | Not to mention that Coinbase doesn't really serve a strong
         | purpose anymore. Why not just use a DEX?
        
           | xienze wrote:
           | Well first, how are you gonna get Eth or whatever to use that
           | DEX? Some apps have payment options but hoooo boy are the
           | fees outrageous. Coinbase doesn't have the best fees in the
           | world but just mosey on over to Coinbase Pro and it's a whole
           | lot better.
           | 
           | Then there's the gas fees on Uniswap. Not even worth
           | bothering with unless you plan on making $1000+ trades.
           | 
           | The other thing to consider is that for newbies they offer a
           | safe platform with a list of established coins. That counts
           | for something.
        
           | miglmj wrote:
           | High fees and lack of a fiat on ramp are two big reasons
        
         | rawtxapp wrote:
         | I agree with you, I think their coinbase pro fees are
         | relatively reasonable, but I just don't see why anyone would
         | use the "normal" coinbase, the fees are very high, I suspect
         | it's probably name recognition, ease of use and trust.
        
         | Black101 wrote:
         | Many Stock brokers like Webull let you buy crypto, but you
         | can't transfer them to your wallet or use them to make
         | purchases. Also, they claim no fees, but they add the fee to
         | the spread (the spread is artificially increased to 1% both
         | ways (2% total)) ... so it is like a hidden fee that ends up
         | being more then what you pay on Coinbase, especially if you
         | trade a substantial amount each month [1]. So Coinbase is still
         | one of the best even though they can't handle the loads when
         | the market get busy.
         | 
         | 1. https://i.imgur.com/IohYn4o.png
        
           | superfrank wrote:
           | > Many Stock brokers like Webull let you buy crypto, but you
           | can't transfer them to your wallet or use them to make
           | purchases.
           | 
           | Fair, but I feel like most people I know aren't using crypto
           | as a currency right now. They're more interested in holding
           | or speculating on the price, so transferring to another
           | wallet is a non-issue.
           | 
           | > Also, they claim no fees, but they add the fee to the
           | spread (the spread is artificially increased to 1% both ways
           | (2% total))
           | 
           | I'm not up to date on Coinbase's latest fee structure, but I
           | think 2% still may be less than, or at least comparable, to
           | what they are charging. Even if it isn't, the illusion of no
           | fees will attract a certain amount of people.
           | 
           | > especially if you trade a substantial amount each month
           | 
           | Do people trade a lot using Coinbase (serious question)? I
           | was under the impression that there were better platforms out
           | there more suited to day/swing trading crypto.
        
             | Black101 wrote:
             | The maximum that you can get charged at Coinbase is 1% for
             | a buy & sell transaction pair (0.5% each way), if you don't
             | trade much... so half of webull :
             | https://i.imgur.com/IohYn4o.png
             | 
             | But it goes down quickly. It gets cut in half if you trade
             | $50k/month and goes to down to 0% if you trade a lot.
        
           | tedunangst wrote:
           | For reference, coinbase is currently quoting bid/ask for
           | bitcoin at around 58/62...
        
             | gruez wrote:
             | That's their quote for casual users. You get much tighter
             | spreads on coinbase pro.
        
               | tedunangst wrote:
               | I think that's the right comparison for webull or
               | robinhood.
        
               | Black101 wrote:
               | I get $0.01 spread on Coinbase pro unless the market
               | activity is going crazy.
        
         | perardi wrote:
         | What's "Apex Crypto"?
         | 
         | I am not being obtuse or sarcastic here. Is it this?
         | http://apexcrypto.com Because that website tells me nothing at
         | all. And past that, Google only shows a few press releases.
         | 
         | -
         | 
         | But on the consumer crypto coin collector criteria, it still
         | seems like Coinbase has the mind-share. And I imagine they have
         | the reach and scale to be in compliance with regulators, which
         | is what makes them a more attractive investment.
         | 
         | Me? Square's Cash app is awfully slick, and makes buying
         | drugs...I mean...buying non-fiat currency to stick it to the
         | man all very easy. But I have no idea if people use that
         | feature frequently.
        
           | superfrank wrote:
           | > What's "Apex Crypto"?
           | 
           | Apex Crypto is a crypto clearing house, similar to the
           | clearing houses we have for the stock market. Companies like
           | Robinhood, WeBull, SoFi, etc aren't building their crypto
           | trading infrastructure from the ground up. They're plugging
           | into services like this, which handle the exchange between
           | fiat and crypto and a lot of the regulatory compliance. This
           | drastically cuts down the complexities and lowers the barrier
           | to entry for offering buying and selling of crypto.
           | 
           | I don't know all the details of the services they offer, but
           | services like this are the reason it seems like every app
           | under the sun will now let you buy and sell crypto.
        
             | gruez wrote:
             | >Apex Crypto is a crypto clearing house, similar to the
             | clearing houses we have for the stock market
             | 
             | Is this the same "Apex" that handles clearing for stocks?
        
           | rawtxapp wrote:
           | > But I have no idea if people use that feature frequently.
           | 
           | Looks like they made 4.57B$ in revenue with 97M$ in profit
           | [1]. And "We've continued to see strong adoption, with 3
           | million customers [buying bitcoin] through the past year, and
           | in January we saw 1 million new to bitcoin in just one
           | month."
           | 
           | 1: https://www.coindesk.com/square-cash-app-bitcoin-revenues-
           | sw...
        
             | tedunangst wrote:
             | It's a bit odd to count that as revenue. Like Robinhood
             | counting their entire trade volume of $350 billion as
             | "revenue".
        
               | rodonn wrote:
               | Unfortunately under US accounting rules you have to do it
               | this way in your financial filings.
        
               | woobar wrote:
               | But bigger brokers (in fact, much more than just brokers)
               | like Merrill ($18B) or Schwab($10B) do not report their
               | transaction volume as revenue.
        
         | gibybo wrote:
         | I think the bull case may be more about their future sources of
         | revenue. If crypto succeeds, exchanging it with fiat may end up
         | being only a relatively small amount of the economic activity.
         | Traditional brokers are not likely to be able to compete with
         | Coinbase in those future markets.
         | 
         | Of course it's really hard to predict what those future markets
         | might be or how much value Coinbase will be able to extract
         | from them, so I have no idea if $68 billion is a reasonable
         | valuation.
        
         | vmception wrote:
         | So I don't get that impression because the trading fees are a
         | sideshow.
         | 
         | Coinbase Vault is providing access and liquidity to the whole
         | DeFi market without ever saying it.
         | 
         | Its like not investing in Amazon because you didn't notice AWS.
         | The similarity being limited to there being a non-consumer
         | facing product that might be bigger than the visible one.
         | Coinbase has a lot of growing revenue streams, which has almost
         | nothing to do with the retail platform of non-crypto people
         | looking to buy crypto.
        
       | thrwn_frthr_awy wrote:
       | How is the opening stock price decided on a direct listing?
       | 
       | Is there a way to put in orders for a ticker before it has
       | opened/been listed so that you can purchase at 9:30 on the 14th?
        
         | woobar wrote:
         | RBLX just did a direct listing. They set a reference price at
         | $45. Later in the day (they did not start trading until midday)
         | the reference price was adjusted to $60. I had two limit
         | orders. One from day before at $50, another placed at noon at
         | $62. None of them executed, since it opened at $64+.
        
         | JumpCrisscross wrote:
         | > _How is the opening stock price decided on a direct listing?_
         | 
         | Same way every stock does every morning: the opening cross [1].
         | 
         | [1] http://www.nasdaqtrader.com/Trader.aspx?id=OpenClose
        
         | an_opabinia wrote:
         | Look for an order type called "limit on open," or its
         | radioactive cousin, "market on open."
         | 
         | The reason people don't do this is, that kind of order requires
         | having an opinion about what a stock should be priced at. And
         | retail traders basically never have that opinion.
        
       | tfang17 wrote:
       | Coinbase has been using Morgan Stanley's Shareworks platform to
       | manage the direct listing, which has been a nightmare to use. ACH
       | transfers take over a week and the platform has a ton of
       | technical issues.
        
         | an_opabinia wrote:
         | In my experience, financial literacy is so poor and Dunning
         | Kruger so high that typical non-finance human beings constantly
         | blame the process for extremely basic mistakes, like sending
         | money between accounts of different titles but saying that you
         | own both of them.
         | 
         | Even the word "title" would detonate the average person.
        
           | gibybo wrote:
           | This sounds like a case of blaming the user for poor UX
           | design. If the users that the system is designed for are
           | constantly making the same "basic mistakes", then the system
           | isn't designed well for them.
        
           | BenoitP wrote:
           | I think it is spelled Dunning-Kruger.
        
           | tfang17 wrote:
           | I'm a pretty experienced trader and worked on the Payments
           | team at Coinbase, dealing with ACH, wires, and whatnot. If
           | it's hard for me, can't imagine what the platform is like for
           | others.
           | 
           | Coinbase has an alumni Slack filled with complaints on
           | Shareworks.
        
       | frakkingcylons wrote:
       | > Coinbase anticipates that its Class A common stock will begin
       | trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker
       | symbol "COIN" on April 14, 2021.
        
       | 3327 wrote:
       | Lmk when i can short.
        
         | fredfoobar wrote:
         | If you want to short a stock, you should at the very least do
         | some due diligence and read the article before you comment.
        
         | freerobby wrote:
         | April 14
        
           | westpfelia wrote:
           | typically options dont get written for a few months until
           | after
        
             | tedunangst wrote:
             | Should be able to sell short the day of, but locating
             | borrows may be difficult depending on who's holding it.
        
               | vmception wrote:
               | If you have direct market access and a clearing house you
               | can do whatever you want, its the reliance on brokers
               | that limits all the other market participants
        
       | andy_ppp wrote:
       | The answer is April 14th for those too lazy to read the article.
        
       | Melting_Harps wrote:
       | I hope the GME crowds short the living hell out this thing...
        
       | thirdlamp wrote:
       | Would've been interesting if they'd IPO through some crypto
       | means, like on ether or something
        
         | cecida wrote:
         | Despite what Crypto Bros say, all they really want is to get
         | filthy rich with real money.
        
           | wsinks wrote:
           | I know it's wrong and this is likely a low level comment
           | but...
           | 
           | Crypto Bros -> CryptBros -> XD
        
           | base698 wrote:
           | Real lambos and houses. No one wants dirty fiat.
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | brian-armstrong wrote:
             | If anyone has fiat lying around causing them problems I'd
             | be happy to take it off your hands. I'm certified for
             | proper fiat handling.
        
               | Melting_Harps wrote:
               | > If anyone has fiat lying around causing them problems
               | I'd be happy to take it off your hands. I'm certified for
               | proper fiat handling.
               | 
               | You can't be trusted not to manipulate the Bitcoin
               | market, as you just got fined; your customer service is
               | abhorant and you keep shutting down accounts and trades
               | for no explicable reason. Why would anyone trust you with
               | anything at this point is beyond me.
               | 
               | I want you personally to know that YOU and Coinbase (and
               | what it represents) are the bane of Bitcoin and all of HN
               | and YC should know that.
        
               | vecter wrote:
               | You've got the wrong Brian Armstrong.
        
           | jklinger410 wrote:
           | Yeah man, we all love the petro-dollar.
        
         | Hermel wrote:
         | Yes, this is a missed opportunity for crypto. Unfortunately,
         | securities and exchanges for securities are so heavily
         | regulated, that it is very hard to try something like this with
         | a "fail fast" approach and we will probably have to wait for
         | quite a while until we see such markets happen, if at all.
         | 
         | To me as a computer scientist, it is astonishing that even
         | something as simple as a web service that matches willing
         | buyers and sellers of securities requires a license that costs
         | millions of dollars to obtain.
        
           | gruez wrote:
           | >Yes, this is a missed opportunity for crypto. Unfortunately,
           | securities and exchanges for securities are so heavily
           | regulated
           | 
           | Makes sense, given the ICO craze back in 2017.
        
           | wj wrote:
           | About a decade ago BATS tried to IPO on their own exchange
           | and failed pretty spectacularly. Coinbase probably doesn't
           | want to "fail fast" with their IPO when there are billions on
           | the line.
        
         | fredfoobar wrote:
         | The reason is the SEC. Look into stokr.io.
        
           | CamelCaseName wrote:
           | There's a reason access to capital markets is somewhat
           | restricted. Investors are going to get fleeced.
           | 
           | I only wish the SEC (or the European authority) had more
           | bite, as stokr absolutely deserves to be shut down.
        
         | nikanj wrote:
         | Never get high on your own supply
        
       | julee04 wrote:
       | is this april fools?
        
         | perardi wrote:
         | 1. No, because if a company announced that the SEC had given
         | them go-ahead to go public "for the lulz", that company would
         | then be in deep shit with investors and the SEC for the rest of
         | time.
         | 
         | 2. No, because that wouldn't even be a funny joke.
         | 
         | 3. No, because we are done with April Fools, the internet drove
         | that into the ground looooong ago.
        
         | JumpCrisscross wrote:
         | > _is this April fools?_
         | 
         | No. Why would it be? Coinbase has been preparing to go public
         | for some time now.
        
           | atkbrah wrote:
           | Because it's April 1st.
        
             | swixmix wrote:
             | https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1679788/00016282802
             | 1...
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | qbasic_forever wrote:
       | Honest question, why is Coinbase listing on the NASDAQ (edit:
       | tangentially also NYSE)? If their whole business model is
       | predicated on the success of crypto-currency shouldn't the whole
       | world of fiat currency be completely irrelevant and a
       | distraction?
        
         | TedDoesntTalk wrote:
         | > why is Coinbase listing on the NYSE
         | 
         | I don't think you read the article, let alone the headline.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | qbasic_forever wrote:
           | Pedantic point.
           | 
           | Question remains...
        
             | loceng wrote:
             | My guess is they need to allow mainstream investors to get
             | some of their eggs in the Coinbase-Bitcoin basket, so then
             | they can really ramp up and involve the VC-Finance
             | Industrial Complex to further buy into the MLM-Ponzi
             | scheme.
             | 
             | Edit to add: Your 3 downvotes have convinced me, especially
             | because most certainly they didn't come from users
             | financially incentivized for Bitcoin to gain popularity.
        
         | eej71 wrote:
         | They are listing on NASDAQ. Though they will be tradable on
         | NYSE as well.
        
         | ac29 wrote:
         | The VCs that gave them many dollars would like their investment
         | (and hopefully, profit) returned in dollars.
        
           | qbasic_forever wrote:
           | Ahh, there's the real reason. So why do the VCs want fiat and
           | not crypto returns?
        
             | nostromo95 wrote:
             | Well, (a) just because they invested in Coinbase, which
             | does crypto, doesn't mean they have as much confidence in
             | crypto as they have in Coinbase--betting on Coinbase is a
             | bet on the volatility of crypto + Coinbase's ability to
             | win, not a bet on the price of crypto, (b) you have to pay
             | taxes in dollars, (c) their investors probably want
             | dollars.
        
           | kgog wrote:
           | At a minimum, that's a signal for the future of
           | cryptoCURRENCY. :)
        
         | oh_sigh wrote:
         | Nasdaq, but in any case coinbase is predicated on crypto
         | interacting with the normal banking/fiat world. They're
         | basically in the middle ground. They aren't crypto-denialists
         | who say crypto will go to zero. They aren't crypto-bulls who
         | say crypto will replace all currency in the near future. They
         | see crypto as coexisting with the existing banking and finance
         | sector.
        
         | vmception wrote:
         | The US markets have the most liquidity and access and users
         | compared to all markets in the world, including crypto markets.
        
           | errantmind wrote:
           | Not from what I've seen. Binance (Intl) has a lot more
           | liquidity than any US specific market, mainly because they
           | offer derivatives
        
       | sjg007 wrote:
       | What happens when the US bans Bitcoin?
        
         | sk55 wrote:
         | What makes you so confident that the US will ban bitcoin?
         | 
         | Also, if the US bans it then it's still valuable in much of the
         | rest of the world. Bitcoin is antifragile in that regard.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-04-01 23:01 UTC)