Coinbase from YC to DPO • Hacker News Board

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#481

Post by o_p » Wed, Apr 14, 2021, 8:53 PM UTC

purple_ferret wrote: post #23

Coinbase is definitely a success story in how to appeal to the masses. There were always alternatives, but coinbase always came out on top despite the high fees and poor customer service. I think Coinbase as a publicly traded company will be very interesting to follow. Not only is it a massively cyclical industry, but the supposed point of crypto is to reducing the reliance on, and grifting from, companies like Coinb…

>the supposed point of crypto is to reducing the reliance on, and grifting from, companies like Coinbase.

Not necessarily, the point of crypto is to reduce reliance on fiat money, due to the high fees of crypto it makes sense to build centralized services on top backed by decentralized cryptocurrencies, these exchanges dont hold real power, as you can just switch exchanges (unlike credit card processors). Bitcoin is like the internet gold, but you dont buy stuff with gold.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#482

Post by Aunche » Wed, Apr 14, 2021, 8:54 PM UTC

whatever1 wrote: post #433

For reference, BP the number five global oil behemoth with 200B in revenues in 2020, has a market cap of 85B. Coinbase that sells pumped speculation for a fee has a market cap of 100B. Markets are efficient.

The efficient market hypothesis means that valuation of Coinbase reflects all available information. I'd wager that this is true. It doesn't mean that the services Coinbase provides actually are actually worth that much or will ever be in the future.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#483

Post by rp1229 » Wed, Apr 14, 2021, 8:54 PM UTC

jedberg wrote: post #154

TameAntelope wrote: post #120

Is there any way of knowing how much YC made on the IPO? Ballpark/order of magnitude? Always curious to see what a win looks like from the accelerator side.

Not sure about YC, but Andreessen-Horowitz seems to have made about $14B from their $2M investment? Assuming I'm reading this SEC filing correctly. And Union Square Ventures appears to have turned $13M into about $7B? https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1679788/000162828021...

If they wanted to realize those gains, they would have to sell right? causing the price to plummet?

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#484

Post by J5892 » Wed, Apr 14, 2021, 8:55 PM UTC

ROARosen wrote: post #472

rgifford wrote: post #458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As long as there are millions of transactions going on, the business model will stay 'efficient'. I have a timeshare to sell you.

Last time I checked timeshares were a shrinking sector. My advice to you is: consider pivoting your biz model to crypto brokerage.

That's a saturated market.

The real money is in crypto-timeshares.

We have all the advantages of a timeshare business, and also blockchain.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#485

Post by staplers » Wed, Apr 14, 2021, 8:56 PM UTC

dylkil wrote: post #457

whatever1 wrote: post #433

For reference, BP the number five global oil behemoth with 200B in revenues in 2020, has a market cap of 85B. Coinbase that sells pumped speculation for a fee has a market cap of 100B. Markets are efficient.

the salt on this board when it comes to crypto only gets worse as time goes on

I have distanced myself from hn GREATLY over the last year. The decline is seemingly exponential.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#486

Post by pjc50 » Wed, Apr 14, 2021, 8:56 PM UTC

ROARosen wrote: post #446

whatever1 wrote: post #433

For reference, BP the number five global oil behemoth with 200B in revenues in 2020, has a market cap of 85B. Coinbase that sells pumped speculation for a fee has a market cap of 100B. Markets are efficient.

So if their business model is raking it in by selling pumped-up speculation, and the pumped-up speculation market is a growing sector, then that's what is called an efficient business model which has nothing to do with the fact that markets are 'efficient'. Also, since when does anyone care if casino's business is based on pumped up gambling. As long as there are millions of transactions going on, the business model…

Unfortunately this is right. It doesn't matter whether it's rational or not, but it's definitely profitable. At the moment.

Given we have financial crises in the global economy on roughly a decade basis, and the last one was 2008, there might be another one soon ..

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#487

Post by KitDuncan » Wed, Apr 14, 2021, 8:56 PM UTC

pinkybanana wrote: post #327

cableshaft wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. Assuming he put in just $10,000 (and I imagine it was probably more than that), 6000x return would be 60 million dollars. Any early companies out there right now seem like it could potentially offer even a 10th of that in ~5-10 years?

Well I bought BTC at $1 and so did many others, now it trades at $60k...

but did you hold it this long?

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#488

Post by eloff » Wed, Apr 14, 2021, 8:59 PM UTC

anonporridge wrote: post #477

eloff wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not pedantic at all, it's the most interesting part of this IPO, because this is a new way to do IPOs.

1. Keep valuable growth companies private for as long as possible where only accredited investors (rich people) can invest in them. 2. Open up to the public market only once you've reached the max theoretical valuation. The company is still hugely overvalued on hype and future growth is unlikely. Ideally, you quickly make it into the S&P 500 so you can hand off the bag to passive index holders who have very predictab…

Yeah, capital > labor as Thomas Piketty pointed out quite nicely.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#489

Post by staplers » Wed, Apr 14, 2021, 9:00 PM UTC

paulpauper wrote: post #418

kvz wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren’t they firing a lot of folks due to the pandemic?

That was a year ago. Airbnb completely recovered and then some in terms of value. A few metro area like SF and NY were hit , but the overall picture is improving, and such setbacks will imho be temporary.

"Temporary value recovery" interesting way to contradict your original claim. All value fluctuates.

Re: Coinbase from YC to DPO

#490

Post by Grustaf » Wed, Apr 14, 2021, 9:00 PM UTC

pvarangot wrote: post #473

whatever1 wrote: post #433

For reference, BP the number five global oil behemoth with 200B in revenues in 2020, has a market cap of 85B. Coinbase that sells pumped speculation for a fee has a market cap of 100B. Markets are efficient.

Yeah it sucks that the valuation for a company that inefficiently mines a resource that's going to be stored forever and mostly used to speculate, with only a small part of it ever put to productive use has such a high valuation. But yeah the valuation for Coinbase is also insane!

Oil is "mined" very efficiently, and I bet most of the production each year is used pretty quickly.