With Coinbase announcing their filing for an IPO early today I just wanted to give my initial reaction and a guess how this may play out.

To be honest, this wasn't exactly a huge surprise as it has been teased for some time and Coinbase has been making moves at the board level. I am a little bit shocked at the timing, as it's been a busy time for IPOs lately with companies like AirBnB and DoorDash seeing huge gains as soon as their stocks hit the market and the Thursday before a holiday week feels to me an odd time to announce something like this. It's possible they were trying to head off a leak, but for whatever reason the decision was made the news is official.......at least the little bit they've given us.

As for right now we don't know if there will be a standard IPO process where large institutions will get first dibs at their stock, a direct offering free for all, or something more fitting for a crypto based company. With the SEC still lukewarm at best when it comes to digital currencies I'm going to guess they won't allow a tokenized form of equity stake so I'm putting my money on a direct offering but we won't be sure until there is an announcement. A traditional IPO where institutions get first dibs just doesn't feel right here. Newer users to Bitcoin and other currencies wouldn't give it much thought but the enthusiasts who have gotten crypto to where it is would likely see it as a betrayal.

However you might feel about Coinbase, the fact that their books will be open to the public could be huge. While we've had a number of traditional players starting to enter the space like banks and Paypal, it's felt like they were just edging into digital currency and trying to earn some extra cash off what they still consider a niche market. If Coinbase can show that providing a full range of services for crypto can be very profitable you'll see an even heavier rush of money an attention poured into the market, likely driving up Bitcoin and everything else along the way.

Of course, there is still the issue of governmental resistance to digital currencies which will likely receive more attention with this IPO, but that was a battle that was going to have to be fought anyway so it may be best to deal with it now instead of it hovering over everything.

Right now I have no idea what Coinbase might be asking as part of their initial offering, but I'll be watching for an information about their recent filing and will try to give a sense if Coinbase will be a good buy or not as soon as I can.