Blockchain.com interviews banks for possible IPO this year
Cryptocurrency wallet provider Blockchain.com is interviewing investment bankers about going public as soon as this year, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
The company hasn’t made a final decision, though, and its plans for an initial public offering (IPO) could change, the people said. The public debut could also slip to next year, they added.
The news should come as no surprise as Macrina Kgil, chief financial officer of Blockchain.com, told Forbes last year that they are considering going public, but there were no immediate plans for action.
Speaking on the future plans after Blockchain.com surpassed $1 trillion in crypto transactions, Kgil hinted that her company is looking to go public via an IPO in 18 months or more.
Blockchain.com, led by CEO and co-founder Peter Smith, is said to have registered 73 million crypto wallets and over 31 million verified users in more than 200 countries. It also claims a market share of 28% of all bitcoin transactions.
Earlier this month, Blockchain.com had raised an undisclosed amount in its Series D funding round at a whopping $14 billion valuation. The deal highlights venture capital’s growing willingness to jump back into the crypto frenzy. The recent post-money valuation has more than doubled from the $5.2 billion valuation that Blockchain amassed at its Series C financing round of $300 million in March 2020. But, more interestingly, the previous valuation came just one month after the company raised $120 million in a funding round that valued it at $3 billion.
Crypto giants are looking at the IPO route
The London-based firm, an early entrant in the crypto space and one of the industry’s best-known wallet providers, has reported a 300% increase in active users in 2021 as interest in cryptocurrencies was soaring on the back of a heady bull run last year.
After Coinbase’s mega listing, the cryptocurrency community kept a close watch on big crypto players to determine whether or not any of them will follow the same path.
Despite its rocky relationship with regulators, Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao also announced that the exchange’s US business is looking at the IPO route.
In April 2021, Coinbase went public in a historic direct listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange that valued the popular exchange at more than $100 billion. However, this milestone came at a time when the crypto industry enjoyed a historic bull run that had sent its total market cap beyond $2 trillion.
While Blockchain.com is the latest large crypto business to look at the IPO route, it’s unlikely to be the last. A host of high-profile crypto players, including crypto exchange Kraken and stablecoin issuer Circle, are also considering the prospect, and more could do so soon.
