How Coinbase rode crypto’s ‘inflection point’ to a rocky but momentous year

In 2021, Microsoft (MSFT) – Yahoo Finance’s company of the year – saw its market capitalization top $2 trillion.

During the year, the ascendant cryptocurrency asset class set two major milestones: its market cap also topped $2 trillion, and Coinbase (COIN), the most popular U.S. based crypto exchange, went public on the Nasdaq through the largest ever direct listing.

With a market cap of just over $70 billion, Coinbase’s value is just a fraction compared to tech heavyweights like Nasdaq, but is multiples higher than the $8 billion valuation it fetched only a few years before. That’s no small feat considering Coinbase Global CEO Brian Armstrong co-founded the company with Fred Ehrsam at a time when Bitcoin cost less than $10 (it traded above $50,000 on Friday).

“The industry had reached a critical inflection point,” Emilie Choi, Coinbase’s president and COO, told Yahoo Finance in an interview.

She added that in many ways, Coinbase’s entry into the public markets was reflective of the mainstream financial world’s acceptance and adoption of cryptocurrencies, and how the sector has matured since its birth over a decade ago.