Coinbase, known as the "Google of the currency circle", is about to IPO.

According to the E-round financing in November 2018, the company's valuation reached 8 billion US dollars.

However, Messari, a blockchain database company, believes the potential valuation is $28 billion after studying Coinbase's trading, custody, debit card and other businesses.

Is it high?

Maybe not.

If calculated based on the Coinbase Pre-IPO product CBSE launched on the encrypted derivatives trading platform, the current price is 231 US dollars, multiplied by 250 million shares, and the market value is 57.8 billion US dollars.

Brian Armstrong, whose net worth topped $1 billion six months ago, is even richer.

And this was not beyond his expectation.

In his “The Next Decade of Cryptocurrency” speech, Armstrong revealed:

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Google that builds the currency circle

“Great businesses start with humble beginnings. Most of the success stories you see, they start out as a simple idea and a crude prototype. It will take 5 to 10 years to turn it into an overnight success.” time, while going through dozens of setbacks and process corrections. So pick something you’re passionate about and start doing it now.”

—— Brian Armstrong

According to Armstrong, since elementary school, he showed signs of being an entrepreneur. At first, he was selling candy on the playground and ended up being taken to the principal's office. And that didn't dampen his confidence, because he wasn't content to be mediocre and tied down.

Selling used computers, creating an online training platform University Tutor, and adventuring on adventure travel, he is constantly trying to figure out "what do you want to do with this life".

Until 2010, the Bitcoin white paper released by Satoshi Nakamoto hit his heart like lightning.

Armstrong said, "This is the most inspiring content I have read in many years. I have to read Satoshi Nakamoto's masterpiece again and again because I can't stop imagining the transformative potential that Bitcoin brings."

He bought $1,000 worth of Bitcoin at a price of $9, and the price dropped to $2. Friends around him shouted that "Bitcoin sounds crazy", but he did not change his belief.

Armstrong thought to himself, "The Internet is an information transfer medium, and Bitcoin is a decentralized value transaction method. Therefore, if Bitcoin can really have the influence of the Internet, then I should personally create the most distinctive cryptocurrency in the field of cryptocurrency." company of."

Coinbase was launched in 2012 with a $150,000 injection from Y Combinator.

In 2017, Bitcoin ushered in a big bull market, and investor interest in cryptocurrencies became mainstream. Coinbase took the opportunity to start capitalizing, becoming the Wells Fargo of the new digital gold rush of the 21st century.

In a short period of time, Coinbase became the first U.S. cryptocurrency startup to receive a $1 billion "unicorn" valuation from investors, as well as the first company to hit $1 billion in annual revenue.

As of now, this unicorn already has services such as custody, trading and lending, and 35 million users. It is the most successful and influential exchange in the currency circle.

1. Custody business

Since its launch in July 2018, Coinbase Custody has experienced rapid growth. Custody business totaled $7 billion last year and is now nearly $30 billion.

According to foreign media reports, as the price of bitcoin fell from the weekend high, MicroStrategy announced that it had purchased 29,646 bitcoins at a price of US$650 million, at a price of about US$21,925 each.

If no surprise, these huge transactions were completed by Coinbase.

Microstrategy founder Michael Saylor said: "If Bitcoin is not a hundred times better than gold, it is a million times better than gold. There is no better description than this."

"The profit-maximizing strategy is to own the fastest horse... I bet it will be Bitcoin." Paul Tudor Jones aka.

Asset managers, hedge funds, and venture capital firms have become Coinbase customers, even though Custody’s service requires a minimum deposit of $10 million.

In order to use the service, users also need to pay an initial setup fee of $100,000, and a deposit service fee of 10 basis points (one thousandth) per month.

2. Trading business

Today, Coinbase operates the world's largest regulated exchange, a centralized liquidity pool that aggregates the assets of 35 million retail and institutional clients.

According to the official website, the total transaction size of Coinbase exceeds 320 billion US dollars, and the platform assets exceed 25 billion US dollars.

3. Lending business

A few months ago, Coinbase announced its entry into the lending industry, and customers in some states in the United States can use Bitcoin as collateral to borrow money.

The official stated that Coinbase will provide cash loans with a maximum amount of 30% of the customer's bitcoin holdings, or a maximum of 20,000 US dollars. For the interest rate, a fixed annual interest rate of 8% will be deducted, with a maximum repayment date of one year.

4. Investment department

The goal of investment arm Coinbase Ventures is to help create a proper open financial system.

To do this, it provides funding to early-stage startups with promising ideas and dedicated teams. As a result, Coinbase Ventures has invested in dozens of innovative projects that are building the financial infrastructure of the future.

Specifically include: CoinDCX, an Indian cryptocurrency exchange, Bitso, the largest and most trusted cryptocurrency platform in Latin America, OpenSea, an online store for trading Ethereum-encrypted commodities, etc.

It is worth mentioning that although Bitcoin has been born for 10 years, it is still in the early stages of cryptocurrency development. Armstrong believes that this stage is very similar to the early days of the Internet.

In this sense, the application is built on the Internet Web 3.0, and we can become the world's leading company.

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What doesn't kill you makes you stronger

Although Coinbase has become one of the leaders in the cryptocurrency field, the development over the years has been accompanied by a lot of controversy and hostility.

In June of this year, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the author of "Black Swan", revealed on Twitter that his account opened a few months ago at Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, had been cancelled. He asked why Coinbase didn't respond to the error. "Even the account cancellation page is a mess. No response."

However, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

In 2014, Mt.Gox, the world's largest bitcoin trader, was hacked and lost 850,000 bitcoins (valued at $473 million at the time, worth $20.1 billion now), which made users worry about Coinbase's security issues.

"If Coinbase is the future of Bitcoin, then I just want to get out of here," said one user.

During the 2017 bull market, Coinbase was signing up more than 50,000 new customers a day, which caused the company's website to crash, and the site engineers felt like they were using plastic wrap to stop the avalanche.

For users, the website experience has become very poor, frequent failures, and a complete order cannot be completed. Twitter and Reddit were flooded with venting posts, customers' money couldn't be withdrawn, and customer service issues went unresolved for days.

In June of that year, the price of Ethereum on Coinbase fell from $320 to a staggering $0.10 before rebounding, triggering automatic sell orders that caused some hapless investors to abandon all of their positions for only modest profits.

Armstrong eventually decided to save the victims, rescinding their deal and the incident recovered peacefully, but at great cost.

On Dec. 20, Coinbase added the surprising addition of Bitcoin Cash (BCH). The listing has seen unprecedented price increases, and even a $6,000 spread compared to other exchanges.

There has been speculation that Coinbase employees traded on inside information, anticipating an influx of new money, and bought Bitcoin Cash.

In October 2019, a severe outage sent Bitcoin blitzing to $7,700 after some stop-loss orders were inexplicably removed.

These things greatly irritated users.

One person said, "I think all the banks are going to stop accepting Coinbase transactions, the company is over."

Additionally, amid nationwide protests against police brutality and institutionalized racism, Armstrong published a blog post saying the company would not engage in social or political issues and would instead focus on producing products. Since then, 60 people have left the company because they did not share the values.

Despite the many problems, investors are still optimistic about Armstrong and the team, saying

"They were driven by hope, their desire to overcome all odds and fight for a better future."

Andreessen Horowitz founder revealed, "Every time I meet with him, he will ask follow-up questions. He is always curious and looking for guidance."

Armstrong's efforts to improve himself are almost morbid.

He reads a ton of books, mostly audiobooks. His favorite books include science, behavioral psychology, leaning towards management stuff and biographies of great people (Steve Jobs, Wright Brothers, Dwight Eisenhower).

He read Michael Malone's "Bill and Dave," a book on HP's history that prompted Armstrong to urge employees with ideas to reach out to him.

Armstrong recalls "When Steve Wozniak was an engineer at Hewlett-Packard, he brought the Apple 1 to the company. He was like, 'I built this, and I think HP should make it'. But HP said no. And then , he left and created Apple Computer, is that what it is?"

Perhaps letting success slip under his nose is a nightmare for Armstrong.

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Dine with Beckham and donate half of his wealth to charity

Armstrong moved to Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, when he started University Tutor in the early years. There, he saw the country's hyperinflation and severe economic crisis, and a fire ignited in his heart.

In October 2018, Armstrong met world-renowned footballer David Beckham at a restaurant.

Armstrong tweeted:

Had a great dinner with David Beckham last night and we chatted about cryptocurrencies and the state of tech in the Bay Area.

As for the reason for their meeting, the media speculated that it was probably charity.

Because Beckham is responsible for managing a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) fund aimed at helping "children discover their incredible potential," and Coinbase also established the GiveCrypto charity fund at the time.

Armstrong said, "We will raise funds from cryptocurrency holders to help people in need around the world - this process will only use cryptocurrency."

At the end of the year, Armstrong announced that he would join Bill Gates and Buffett in donating more than half of his assets to charity.

On The Giving Pledge, a website created by Gates and Buffett, Armstrong writes,

"When you reach a certain level of wealth, there is little added value in spending more money on yourself. Whether it's through improving education, creating a more level playing field, or increasing economic freedom, I'd love to help more people To see their ideas blossom and bear fruit in the world."

This billionaire who is approaching his forties, his attitude towards wealth may be seen from his attitude towards Bitcoin.

"It's not true that when prices are high, people get very excited and when they're low, they get very negative, and it's more about the practical application of cryptocurrencies than the transaction price. However, this is not true for those of us For someone who has been in the industry for years, it feels like browsing old news,” he said.

No one can predict the future with great accuracy, but a way to predict the future with greater accuracy is to invent the future!

For Armstrong, what he wants to do is "want the world to have a global, open financial system that promotes innovation and freedom."