1,000 Millionaires Were Created When Coinbase Went Public, Says CEO Brian Armstrong

On a recent "The Pomp Podcast" with Anthony Pompliano, Coinbase Global Inc COIN CEO Brian Armstrong said that more than 1,000 millionaires were created when Coinbase went public earlier this year.

What Happened: Coinbase’s first day of trading as a public company was incredibly successful. The direct listing saw crypto exchange valued at $85.7 billion after day one, making it the largest NASDAQ direct listing in history.

However, Armstrong wasn’t always sure that he wanted Coinbase to be a public company.

“I’d talked to some public company CEOs when I was trying to figure all this out. Some of them told me they spend 30%-40% of their time just talking to public market investors. I felt like this might be something that just slows us down,” said Armstrong.

“But I realized over time that there are many different ways to go public, and you can actually do this in a way that’s very beneficial to the company.”

One of the most compelling reasons to go public, is that “it’s a huge legitimizing force,” said Armstrong. After Coinbase went public, a number of Fortune 500 companies reportedly felt more comfortable working with the U.S.-based crypto exchange.

Another reason, he said, was the public listing itself gave early investors and Coinbase employees significant liquidity.

“I think over 1,000 millionaires were created at Coinbase when we went public, which was an incredible statistic,” said the CEO.

“Now that our stock has this sort of liquidity to it, it’s given us a liquid currency to go out and do more international expansion, and things like that,” he added.

COIN Price Action: Coinbase shares closed down 1.03% on Tuesday at a price of $229.84.

Photo: Jeremy Bezanger on Unsplash