Shares of Coinbase were traded at a valuation of roughly $90 billion in a private auction before the public listing of the high-profile US cryptocurrency company.

According to a Bloomberg report, Nasdaq Private Market conducted the private auction that ended last Thursday, which is also the last private auction of Coinbase stocks conducted by the stock exchange.

Each share of the cryptocurrency exchange at a price of $350 apiece, which is down from the previous auction price of $375, skyrocketed the valuation of the cryptocurrency exchange to around $100 billion, anonymous sources of the publication revealed.

A High-Profile Public Listing 

Coinbase is the largest crypto exchange in the United States and the top fiat-based crypto trading platform globally. The company is well-funded and has raised $500 million from big Silicon Valley names since its launch in 2012.

Ahead of its public listing, which is scheduled for around the end of March, Coinbase’s S-1 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was made public, revealing the key financials of the exchange.

The exchange ended 2020 with a total revenue of $1.3 billion. It netted an income of $322.3 million last year, pivoting from a loss of $30.4 million in 2019. In addition, its operating expense jumped in 2020 to $868.5 million from 2019’s $579.5 million.

Though the public listing of the crypto exchange was rumored for a long time, Coinbase officially announced its intentions to go public with a direct listing on Nasdaq, which will be the stock exchange’s first such listing.

The private auction held by Nasdaq was a standard practice followed by stock exchanges ahead of the direct listing to set a reference price for the investors. It is to be noted that the volume and demand in such auctions remain on the lower side, and it is not indicative of the actual free market demand of the stock.