Coinbase Debuts on Stock Market Reaching $85 Billion Valuation
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase makes a massive public debut via direct listing, while Dell spins out VMware for over $9 billion and various startups secure major funding rounds.
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase makes a major public debut today via a direct listing, opening at $381 per share and briefly climbing to nearly $430 before closing at $328.28. This impressive performance gives the company a market capitalization of $85.8 billion and marks a significant milestone for the cryptocurrency industry. There is a notable irony in this crypto success story playing out on the traditional stock market, especially as various other cryptocurrency prices soar in response.
In other major tech news, Dell spins out VMware in a deal that generates over $9 billion for the company, reversing a major piece of its massive $58 billion EMC acquisition from 2015. Meanwhile, Google transitions its aging FeedBurner service to a new infrastructure but drops its email subscription feature entirely. Social media updates see Instagram testing a new option that allows users to choose whether they want to hide 'Likes' on their posts, a feature Facebook is also testing.
The startup world sees significant financial movement, with US venture capital funding nearly doubling compared to the same quarter in 2020. Astranis raises $250 million at a $1.4 billion valuation to build smaller, cheaper geostationary communications satellites, and edtech platform Outschool becomes a newly minted unicorn with a $1.3 billion valuation. Additionally, MIT startup Pickle secures $5.75 million for its package-picking robot named Dill, and Ford introduces a new hands-free driving system for its vehicles.