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CEO Peter Smith said Blockchain.com is in no hurry to go ahead with an IPO.
Dreamstime
Add Blockchain.com, a cryptocurrency wallet provider, to the list of companies weighing initial public offerings now that
Coinbase Global
has successfully navigated its trip to the public equity markets.
Blockchain.com, of London, is a financial services company that is known for building crypto wallets for users to send, receive, and manage their Bitcoin, Bitcoin cash, and Ether. It employs about 200 people. The start-up is contemplating life as a public company, according to co-founder and CEO Peter Smith.
“We would consider an IPO someday. But we’re not in a rush,” Smith told Barron’s.
When asked about the timing of a possible Blockchain.com IPO, Smith said: “We’ll have to wait and see. Blockchain.com is carefully considering its public-market options.”
Smith made the comments after Coinbase Global listed its shares earlier this week. Coinbase (ticker: COIN), the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S., went public Wednesday with shares rising 32%. On Friday, the stock rose nearly 6% to $342, valuing Coinbase at $89.36 billion, versus a valuation of $65.3 billion at the reference price for the deal of $250. On Wednesday, Coinbase’s stock peaked at $429.54, valuing the exchange at $112.2 billion before dropping.
The Coinbase IPO was interesting because it showed “how the public markets will receive a crypto company,” Smith said.
Awareness of cryptocurrencies has improved, but not everyone understands them, Smith said. “We haven’t even gotten to that point with the internet yet,” he said. Crypto acceptance is better this year, and it is much improved compared with a decade ago, but “we probably have a little bit further to go,” he said.
Blockchain.com is the latest crypto company to consider an IPO. Kraken, a cryptocurrency exchange and one of the oldest Bitcoin exchanges in the world, is also expected to go public. Gemini, the cryptocurrency exchange from Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, is also said to be considering a listing.
Founded in 2011, Blockchain.com has raised $500 million in funding since its founding This includes a $300 million round in March led by the partners of DST Global, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and VY Capital. The round valued Blockchain.com at $5.2 billion.
Blockchain.com is looking to move beyond crypto. It provides a platform for retail and institutional clients to trade crypto while also supplying custody, clearing and settlement services. Smith wants to have foreign-currency exchange, corporate equities, options and other investment products, as well as cryptocurrencies, available on the platform by the end of 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported.
“We just trade crypto. We will probably expand beyond that,” said Smith, who declined to comment further.
Corrections & Amplifications:
An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to a March fund-raising round in Blockchain.com. It was the partners of DST Global, not DST itself, who led the investment.
Write to Luisa Beltran at luisa.beltran@dowjones.com