Private trading of COINBASE Global Inc. shares last week indicated a $90 billion valuation ahead of the firm’s imminent public listing, according to a report from Bloomberg on Tuesday.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the news source said shares changed hands for $350 apiece last Thursday via a Nasdaq Private Market auction.
The $90 billion figure is up $13 billion from February when shares were trading for around $303 each, as CoinDesk previously reported.
Bloomberg’s sources said some shares had reached as high as $375 apiece which would place the company value at around $100 billion – a sum previously suggested by Lex Sokolin, CoinDesk columnist and global fintech co-head at ConsenSys.
The people also suggested the auction is the last time Coinbase shares will be privately traded before the company’s public listing on Nasdaq late this month.
While not necessarily indicative of future prices, private trading can provide a point of reference for where the exchange should set the share price for investors for the listing.
Coinbase’s offering will become the first large-scale direct listing on the Nasdaq – an alternative to the initial public offering (IPO).
