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Ask HN: Why didn't Coinbase 'IPO' by issuing tokens via an ICO?

2 points by pHollda ↗ HN
Why did coinbase IPO by selling shares traditionally instead of issuing tokens via an ICO? Wouldn't that have shown a real belief in what they are doing?

If there are current legitimate legal risks to issuing all their publicly-sellable equity via an ICO? Why not do only some of it as crypto coins?

What's stopping them from issuing a few coins even now? They don't need to need the money. They need to prove that ICOs can work. They are the best placed company in the world to do this: are at the intersection between tradfi and defi, and exist in a country where regulations do exist and do get enforced.

5 comments

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orbz
You kind of already touched on one of the main reasons: there’s a regulatory framework in place for an IPO in their operating jurisdiction. There is still a lot of ambiguity and regulation to come for ICO’s and they (rightfully) don’t want to risk their company until those get ironed out.
pHollda
Why couldn't they issue as low as $10,000 of equity as crypto coins? How is the entire idea ever going to get tested in the real world when the company best positioned to do so lacks courage?

If they lack the balls to do this, why are they positioning themselves as being representative of ideas around decentralized tech? Doesn't that make them pansy little fraudulent boys only excited about number-go-up bullshit like NFTs that fleece the public?

logicalmonster
I doubt that all of the details that went into this decision will ever emerge, but if I had to guess, I'd say that it was probably about being seen as "playing ball" with the existing system to minimize their risk from getting destroyed by regulators.

Crypto itself probably cannot be shut down short of nuking the Internet or physically detaining anybody who wants to trade it, but Coinbase's ability to function as a company can be shut down essentially on a whim with the wrong rule change that prevents them from functioning in a normal fashion. Already with Crypto, they have to step fairly carefully to avoid legal problems. A company can probably get away with 1 controversial thing, but maybe 2 things is harder to manage. In Coinbase's case, they already have 1 big controversial thing just in their business itself and maybe can't take on another big fight.

Also, as an obvious point, there's probably a lot more investor money available in the traditional finance system playing by traditional, well-understood practices.

> How is the entire idea ever going to get tested in the real world when the company best positioned to do so lacks courage?

I'm not certain about this opinion, but as a thought-experiment, I'd argue that the company best positioned to do this might be a boring, non-controversial, non-crypto company that literally nobody wants to ban: say a company making cereal or running a retail or restaurant chain.

Crypto is a loaded topic to a lot of people, so if a crypto company tried to do a crypto IPO, that might give detractors room to argue that it's some kind of scam or a step too far.

Whereas a boring non-crypto company is a lot more sympathetic and less threatening. Can you imagine if a cereal company tried to do a crypto IPO and regulators wanted to go after them and tried to argue that they're some kind of threat? It would be much easier for that kind of boring company to win that kind of fight in the court of public opinion at least.

recvonline
Exit liquidity. Investors cashed out as soon as Coinbase went public. They wanted their money “back” as legal as possible. That’s it.
philomath_mn
> Wouldn't that have shown a real belief in what they are doing?

Just because Coinbase operates within the crypto space doesn’t mean they must themselves embrace and utilize every mechanism within the space. Even if they believe in ICOs specifically, they may have not made sense for their specific business (see other comments about regulation)