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Comment by qbasic_forever | Hacker News Reader

Honest question, why is Coinbase listing on the NASDAQ (edit: tangentially also NYSE)? If their whole business model is predicated on the success of crypto-currency shouldn't the whole world of fiat currency be completely irrelevant and a distraction?

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The VCs that gave them many dollars would like their investment (and hopefully, profit) returned in dollars.

At a minimum, that's a signal for the future of cryptoCURRENCY. :)

How did you come to that conclusion?

Ahh, there's the real reason. So why do the VCs want fiat and not crypto returns?

Well, (a) just because they invested in Coinbase, which does crypto, doesn’t mean they have as much confidence in crypto as they have in Coinbase—betting on Coinbase is a bet on the volatility of crypto + Coinbase’s ability to win, not a bet on the price of crypto, (b) you have to pay taxes in dollars, (c) their investors probably want dollars.

Why is it a direct conclusion that the investors want dollars? it's currently the only system that is available to Coinbase within the US and they're utilizing that. What is stopping the investors from buying back in with the dollars they gained? (you can't know that for sure either)

They want dollars to make the paperwork and accounting easier. They're obviously not going to hold them for long.

If there was an alternative option allowed by the SEC in the US, I'm certain that they'd have chosen that. This is not a cut and dry conclusion (that the investors want dollars).

coinbase is still a company with shareholders - decentralized or not. there are shareholders who want liquidity; there are investors who want in now.

the choice of listing has nothing to do with the monetary unit of trade ($, euro, btc, doge etc). the exchange simply enables them to trade the equity of their company. NASDAQ/US is just the most liquid one (and likely where their immediate investors past and future are going to have access to already)

but perhaps I'm not aware of alternatives where one can trade equity in the crypto/defi market?

happy to learn if you point me to the right places.

Coinbase CEO and CFO did an AMA on Reddit on the topic of IPO and this question was raised. Read for yourself (search for "security token"): https://old.reddit.com/user/CoinbaseListing/comments/m71qrc/...

> If their whole business model is predicated on the success of crypto-currency shouldn't the whole world of fiat currency be completely irrelevant and a distraction?

I'm not following this line of logic, where are you getting this from? Why would the success of crypto-currency imply the demise of fiat, if that's what you're saying? Or why would you have no interest in fiat just because crypto-currency turns successful?

> why is Coinbase listing on the NYSE

I don’t think you read the article, let alone the headline.

Pedantic point.

Question remains...

Nasdaq, but in any case coinbase is predicated on crypto interacting with the normal banking/fiat world. They're basically in the middle ground. They aren't crypto-denialists who say crypto will go to zero. They aren't crypto-bulls who say crypto will replace all currency in the near future. They see crypto as coexisting with the existing banking and finance sector.

The US markets have the most liquidity and access and users compared to all markets in the world, including crypto markets.

Not from what I've seen. Binance (Intl) has a lot more liquidity than any US specific market, mainly because they offer derivatives

I was referring to the US equities and treasuries markets

Which in this context includes cross linked index and futures markets

As this is a conversation about listing an equity versus a security token on a crypto venue, the liquidity is unparalleled (even if crypto venues were trading registered securities tokens)

Stocks just want to be traded, Coinbase is just getting ready for when Nasdaq will quote in BTC. ;-)

They are listing on NASDAQ. Though they will be tradable on NYSE as well.

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