Ahead of a potential initial public offering that may come later this year, the startup of Coinbase Inc.’s cryptocurrency. has welcomed two new people to its board.
One is Gokul Rajaram, a veteran executive at Google Inc., Doordash Inc. and Square Inc. But the big tent appointee is arguably Silicon Valley legend Marc Andreessen.
Andreessen is co-author of Mosaic, co-founder of Netscape and co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, a Silicon Valley top tier venture capital firm. Putting Andreessen’s long history in technology aside, he has long been a supporter of cryptocurrency.
“Marc Andreessen has a phenomenal history in Silicon Valley and was an early believer in the potential of crypto,” Coinbase co-founder and chief executive Brian Armstrong wrote on Medium. “As far back as 2014, he wrote an op-ed headline in The New York Times that first introduced bitcoin to many.”
There is speculation exactly when Coiunbase will go public, but it can happen even before the end of the year.
“The future of Coinbase, including any IPO, is likely to be a bell for the crypto industry as a whole,” wrote Jeff John Roberts at Fortune. “While the industry has grown tremendously – the value of Bitcoin in circulation is now worth over $ 200 billion – and has moved on to traditional finance, crypto has not completely shaken its prohibition reputation.”
Indeed, while cryptocurrency as an investment has matured over the years, companies in the market are still regarded with a degree of skepticism, sometimes justification. In theory, Coinbase, the leading US crypto company, should be viewed positively, but even in 2020, some hangups still have on cryptocurrency.
Entering its IPO, Coinbase has raised $ 547.3 million in venture capital, according to Crunchbase. Investors include Tiger Global Management, Y Combinator Continuity, Wellington Management, Andreessen Horowitz, PolychainSection 32, Balyasny Asset Management, Draper Associates, Battery Ventures, Greylock Partners, Tusk Ventures, Spark Capital, Bank Of Tokyo, USAA, DFJ, BlockChain Capital and the New York Stock Exchange.
Image: Coinbase
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