Jesse Powell, CEO of the site, confirmed the company’s intentions to go public, but noted that the experience of the large cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, which conducted a direct listing, made Kraken think about another option – an initial public offering (IPO).
Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken plans to change its decision to directly list shares on the stock market. Jesse Powell, CEO of the site, told Fortune about this in an interview . According to him, the management of the crypto exchange thought about this after the listing of shares of a larger competitor – Coinbase.
Now for Kraken, an initial public offering (IPO) looks more attractive than a direct listing. According to Powell, immediately after a direct listing, shareholders have the right to sell their shares, which leads to a large number of securities entering the market and pushes their price down.
“The IPO looks more attractive in light of Coinbase’s direct listing results. We are now looking at it more seriously, being able to see how the direct public offering has affected Coinbase, ”Powell said.
The Kraken CEO confirmed that the company still plans to go public in the second half of 2022. By that time, the crypto exchange will have more information that will help the platform choose the best conditions for entering the stock market, Powell added.
Coinbase is the first crypto exchange in the world to go public. Its shares started trading on the NASDAQ on April 14th. Immediately after the opening of trading, the price of the securities was $ 381, with a set reference price of $ 250. Within a few hours, the shares rose 12.5% to $ 429.5, but then quotations began to decline. As of June 11, on the US premarket, securities are trading at $ 224, from the peak they have almost doubled in price.
Coinbase chose to go public bypassing the IPO procedure, through a direct listing. Unlike an IPO, in this case the company does not issue new securities; existing shares of investors and employees are sold on the exchange. This allows you to reduce the cost of investment banking services.
In April, the CEO of Kraken admitted that the crypto exchange would leave the US due to the tightening of regulation of the cryptocurrency sphere. According to him, the management of the site considers the UAE, Great Britain and Japan as an alternative.