Every new technology platform has been built around a specific new capability. The Internet connected…
Crypto / Blockchain, Portfolio
Today our portfolio company Coinbase went public via a direct listing. With an initial market cap of over $100b, it is one of the most valuable public listings of all times in the US. It is also the first IPO in the Version One family and hence, a special milestone for us as a fund. […]
Every new technology platform has been built around a specific new capability. The Internet connected…
We recently organized another crypto dinner in Toronto, bringing together the local community and a…
Today our portfolio company Coinbase went public via a direct listing. With an initial market cap of over $100b, it is one of the most valuable public listings of all times in the US. It is also the first IPO in the Version One family and hence, a special milestone for us as a fund.
We got to invest into Coinbase when we joined their Series D in fall of 2017. It was a much later stage for us than our typical pre-seed/seed investment. At Version One, we believe that we are best when we stay in our early-stage lane, but in this case, we felt very confident that we should make an exception to our investment focus. We laid out our thesis for the Coinbase investment around 3 points:
Looking today at Coinbase and crypto in general, our thesis has played out in the way we hoped it would: the market cap for crypto currencies has increased more than 12x since the fall of 2017, reaching over $2.2t in April 2021. Coinbase is the most recognized brand for crypto exchanges and the clear category leader serving both retail and institutional crypto investors. And, our investment ended up as a multiple fund maker.
Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam started Coinbase with the goal of making crypto currencies accessible to the largest possible audience and creating an open financial system for the world along the way. Coinbase has stayed true to this mission over the years and built an incredible business at the same time. The IPO will now give more investors, who believe in Coinbase and its mission, the opportunity to join in the journey going forward.
But despite all of the progress that we have seen in crypto over the last few years, it is important to remember that crypto is still in its infancy. Relative to how the Internet developed, we might only be in 1997/98. So, the best is yet to come – for both crypto as an industry and Coinbase as an iconic company in this space.
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