BBVA will multiply its investment in the cryptocurrency broker Coinbase by 100

The first bitcoin trading platform to be listed on the stock market is owned by Propel, BBVA's venture capital division.

The bank chaired by Carlos Torres, which has less than 5% of the capital, will multiply its investment in the company by 100, according to the latest valuation of the firm before its premiere on the Nasdaq, of 90,000 million dollars (about 75,000 million of euros).

Thus, Propel participated in a financing round in 2015, when it contributed 75 million dollars along with other investors.

With bitcoin at around $ 54,000, close to its historical record of 57,000 greenbacks that reached on February 21, one of the most impactful IPOs is taking place on Wall Street.

Coinbase's current partners have contributed $ 547 million (€ 450 million) since its inception in 2012. The Andreessen Horowitz venture capital fund controls 24.6% of the A shares, the non-preferred ones with a single voting right , those that will be listed.

They are also followed by private equity Tiger, with 11.7%, and Paradigm (11.4%).

The current CEO of the company and one of its co-founders, Brian Armstrong, is the next largest shareholder with 10.9%.

It is true that class B titles, with 20 political rights, go separately, as is the case with other great technology giants, such as Alphabet, Google's parent company, and Facebook.

Of the latter, which will not be listed on the market, the manager controls 21.8% of the total.

Coinbase will debut on the Nasdaq through a listing, so there will be no placement of new or old shares (IPO) or new (OPS).

And there is still no date set for its premiere, but it is expected to run later this month, according to Bloomberg.

More information

• Coinbase, owned by BBVA, launches its IPO amid bitcoin fever

• BBVA rides on the bitcoin wave and will go gold with the Coinbase IPO

The agency assures that its valuation in a pre-debut auction, held last week in Nasdaq Private Market, was placed at 350 dollars per share, so that the initial capitalization will be around 90,000 million dollars (about 75,000 million euros) .

They even came to offer $ 375 per title, which would place its capitalization at $ 100 billion (84 billion euros).

Propel

One of its minorities, Propel, the BBVA fund, was endowed in September 2018 with 250 million dollars and on February 2 the bank announced that it would inject an additional 150 million dollars.

Propel has an office in London and another in San Francisco.

Invest in fintechs in both the United States and Europe.

Its portfolio includes companies such as Hippo, Guideline, Neon and DocuSign.

The latter, a world leader in electronic signature, was listed on the Nasdaq in 2018.

With the launch of Coinbase, Propel, which has not indicated whether or not it will cash once it starts trading on the stock market, will in any case note huge unrealized capital gains.

The valuation of the firm since the fund landed on its capital in 2015 has multiplied by more than 100 according to the latest calculations.

The bank's venture capital fund controls less than 5% of the capital

The accounts and the differential element

One of the elements that differentiates Coinbase from other platforms is that it introduced compliance, security and training tools necessary to properly manage these assets.

The company, founded by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ersham, has a management team of 50 people, has more than 43 million users worldwide - in 2012, there were 13,000 - and has carried out transactions for more than 456,000 million dollars since its inception, according to the brochure.

In 2020, its income shot up 139%, to 1,277.7 million dollars (1,044 million euros), with a net profit of 322.3 million dollars (263 million euros), compared to losses of 30.3 million dollars (25 million euros) of 2019.