Coinbase Growth Story

A story about Coinbase's growth from seed funding to its public listing, as told by Shaan Puri.

"I remember in 2013, I first heard about crypto from Pete, our IT guy at the office. He was like 'Bitcoin is the shit, it's at $7 now it's at $11.' I didn't even know what that meant. He was mining Bitcoin using our office servers, saying 'we mined 2 Bitcoin today.' I was kind of mocking it but curious.

I started following what smart VCs were doing in the space. I remember listening to Marc Andreessen from Andreessen Horowitz talking about how crypto was going to be great, how Bitcoin and blockchains might change everything. When the interviewer asked how much they'd invested, they said they hadn't invested in any crypto companies yet - they were just buying Bitcoin directly. I found it super strange that a VC fund wasn't investing in companies.

Fast forward to today, Coinbase went public through a direct listing. They have 56 million users, 6 million monthly active users - more than E*Trade had. They did $1.8 billion in revenue for the quarter with $800 million in net income. The company is now valued at $110 billion.

Looking back at their seed round in 2012, they raised $600,000, and shares were worth 15 cents. Today those shares are worth $330. If you had invested $100,000 in the seed round, it would be worth $220 million today. Interestingly, if you had put that same $100,000 in Bitcoin back then at $12 per coin, it would be worth $500 million today with Bitcoin at $62,000."