- Coinbase gifted its full-time employees 100 shares each.
- The surprise gift was awarded ahead of the exchange’s public listing.
- Each share is worth about $250.
Coinbase exchange surprised its 1,700 employees with 100 shares each. The share gift comes ahead of the exchange’s public listing on Nasdaq today, April 14.
However, only full-time employees were eligible for the share giveaway. It means that all contractors and part-time staff that perform auxiliary duties did not get any shares. Also, Coinbase has always been generous to its employees. In fact, the exchange has awarded new employees with Restricted Stock Units (RSU) in the past.
Moreover, according to SEC filing, Coinbase employees make up the majority of current Coinbase shareholders. This is particularly significant as Coinbase intends to go public using a direct listing.
Notably, a direct listing differs from an initial public offer in that the listing company does not issue new shares. The public investors can only buy the listing company’s shares from current shareholders. To this end, Nasdaq has set the reference price for Coinbase shares at $250 each.
Thus, in light of this, Coinbase employees stand to become about $25,000 richer thanks to this generous gift. However, once the shares go public, the price could go either up or down depending on market demand.
In addition, Coinbase is known as the cryptocurrency kingmaker. This is because a Coinbase listing usually causes the crypto’s price to surge. As such, the exchange going public could lead to greater crypto adoption and mainstream acceptance.
This article was first published on coinquora.com
