Coinbase Grants Employees 100 Shares Ahead of Public Listing

Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the U.S., is set to go public through a Nasdaq listing on Wednesday, 14 April. The Class A common stock of the company will list under the ticker “COIN” and will have a reference price of $250 per share.

Based on the reference price set by Nasdaq, the value of the share options allocated to each Coinbase employee reaches $25,000. The Business Post, an Irish publication, first reported the share distribution during the weekend upon learning that the Irish arm of Coinbase allocated 105,510 share options to its employees. The options vested to the employees are a “thank you” from the company for years of hard work and dedication, a Coinbase spokesperson confirmed earlier today.

Coinbase has previously replaced equity grants to new employees with Restricted Stock Units (RSU), a form of compensation that enables employees to acquire shares once certain conditions are fulfilled. The gift shares were delivered to staff on March 25 during an all-hands meeting and represent a “no-strings-attached” type of grant that carries no vesting plan.