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Coinbase Leaders Made a $1 billion Profit Selling Their Shares
Summary: Four Coinbase Global leaders have collectively earned more than $1 billion by selling shares since it was listed for public trading in February last year, according to analysis of regulatory filings by the Wall Street Journal. Since that time, the company’s shares have dropped $269, equalling a 78% decrease. The four leaders are co-founders Briand ...
Four Coinbase Global leaders have collectively earned more than $1 billion by selling shares since it was listed for public trading in February last year, according to analysis of regulatory filings by the Wall Street Journal. Since that time, the company’s shares have dropped $269, equalling a 78% decrease.
The four leaders are co-founders Briand Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, along with president and chief operating officer Emilie Choi and chief product officer Surojit Chatterjee, who received a total of $1.2 billion from stock sales the day Coinbase went live.
Luckily for them, the stock opened at $381 on April 14, 2021 when it started trading through a direct listing. A direct listing differs from an initial public offering in the sense that only current shareholders are able to sell their stocks. This is opposed to initial public offerings where they create new shares and gain proceeds off of them.
According to the Wall Street Journal's analysis, Armstrong and his living trust sold shares worth $292 million. Cho exercised options at a cost of $9.7 million and sold shares worth $226 million. Chatterjee exercised options at a cost of $6 million and sold shares for a total of $110 million, while Ehrasm profited almost $500 million in stock sales during the period.
As it stands, Armstrong still holds a controlling stake of the crypto exchange platform with 59.5% of voting power.
Earlier this week, Paradigm One LP, a Ehrasm co-founded investment firm bought 30,030 Coinbase shares at $60.60 per share, according to a filing. If the shares shoot back up to where they started, Paradigm One LP will make a profit of $9.6 million.
Author: Tyler Irvin
