Coinbase, Stripe Valued Above $100B

Nothing against the ox, but two of Silicon Valley’s mega-startups are getting ready for their Wall Street cotillion, and new reports say they’re already commanding nine-figure valuations. 

First up, Coinbase

Ahead of its planned direct listing, investors are valuing Coinbase at $100+ billion, which would make it the biggest US tech listing since Facebook, per Axios. As the first US-based crypto exchange to go public, it’ll also confer major legitimacy to digital currencies. 

Coinbase has licenses to operate in over 40 states and 100+ countries. And in the first nine months of 2020, it did $141 million in profit… 

…and that was before bitcoin started shooting up like bamboo. The crypto has risen ~96% YTD and is pushing $58k. 

Next is Stripe

Thanks to the pandemic-fueled e-commerce boom, Stripe processed an estimated 50% more payments last year. Investors are valuing the company at $115 billion in the secondary market, more than 3x its valuation from last April.

  • This weekend, Stripe announced that former Bank of England Gov. Mark Carney is joining the board. 

Zoom out: With Ant Group’s IPO blocked by Chinese regulators, American fintechs may steal the show. SoFi is going public via SPAC, and while Robinhood is…working through some things…it hasn’t ruled out a 2021 IPO.