Coinbase makes history by choosing Reddit for its pre-IPO online roadshow
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Coinbase makes history by choosing Reddit for its pre-IPO online roadshow
On Wednesday, Coinbase, the soon-to-be-listed cryptocurrency exchange, announced it would hold an online roadshow on Reddit to answer investors' questions.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsOn Wednesday, Coinbase, the soon-to-be publicly traded cryptocurrency exchange, announced it will host an online roadshow on Reddit to answer questions from investors.
Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, posted on Reddit:
Hi Reddit, I'm Brian Armstrong, CEO and co-founder of Coinbase.
I believe everyday investors should have access to the same information as institutional investors.
Over the next three days, my executive team and I would like to hear your questions about our business, the crypto economy, and more—ask us anything!
As some of you may know, we're planning to go public soon. As part of that process, we typically spend significant time educating large institutional investors about Coinbase and crypto technology in general—this is standard practice, but I feel it's not right.
We want all investors, regardless of affiliation or size, to have equal access to information and the opportunity to engage with us throughout this process.
So we’re trying something new.
Over the next three days, ending Friday at 7 PM Pacific Time, we’ll be accepting questions from anyone about our business, the crypto economy, and our vision. Like other AMAs, we’ll use upvotes to help determine which questions we answer. Once selected, my executive team and I will respond to as many as possible.
Question selection won't be based solely on vote count, but also on value to the community and relevance to our upcoming public listing (topics such as our business model, management team, and products are all fair game). While we’ll try to answer as many as we can, there will be some questions we can’t address (due to legal restrictions!), including:
- Questions regarding Coinbase’s valuation, expected stock price, or non-public financial data.
- Inappropriate or irrelevant questions
- Speculation about future financial performance, growth trends, or expansion plans.
- Questions about new asset listings or explorations
- Questions unrelated to the public listing process or investor decision-making.
Although we’d love to, due to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations, we cannot answer questions in real time.
Instead, we will record our responses and post the videos on this page.
Additionally, I encourage everyone to check out our latest company prospectus (Form S-1) and the series of educational videos on our investor relations website.
Armstrong’s post has already sparked intense questioning and discussion, with over 800 comments so far.
Whether going public or promoting itself, Coinbase has always taken an unconventional path. Traditional initial public offerings (IPOs) are not only expensive but primarily benefit Wall Street institutions, with brokers and banks collecting high fees while wealthy investors profit first, followed only later by retail investors.
Coinbase not only bypassed the traditional IPO route but is also attempting to break conventional roadshow norms—renting lavish offices and pitching company value to the wealthy. In line with crypto’s decentralized ethos, using Reddit for a roadshow seems like a decentralized act of "rebellion," handing question rights over to the general public. However, such actions could also invite regulatory scrutiny from the SEC—only time will tell how this unfolds.
Below are some of the top user questions:
1. What are the criteria for adding altcoins on Coinbase?
2. What do you see as Coinbase’s biggest existential threat—the thing that keeps you up at night?
3. Will we be able to buy Coinbase stock directly on Coinbase?
4. When will ordinary people finally be able to purchase shares?
5. What was the rationale behind launching separate apps/services (Coinbase, Coinbase Pro, and Wallet) instead of a unified, integrated experience?
6. What needs to happen for crypto payments to be fully integrated into internet services? Is there any cryptocurrency today you think can achieve this, or are we still waiting for a scalable solution? Could CBDCs fulfill this role? What role will Coinbase play in the internet of value?
7. How big of a business risk do decentralized exchanges (DEXs) pose to $COIN? Since the DeFi boom, DEXs have shown tremendous strength—does this keep you awake at night? Will they disappear, or do you plan to enter this space too?
8. Why is Satoshi Nakamoto’s address included in the prospectus (Form S-1)?
9. Most traditional stock market brokers have already moved to zero-commission trading. To date, I know of only one crypto broker offering commission-free trading, but this seems inevitably destined to become more common in the future. Given that most of Coinbase’s revenue comes from fees, do you have a contingency plan to continue operating in a zero-commission environment?
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