Master’s Thesis from the year 2021 in the subject Business economics – Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1, 0, , language: English, abstract: This thesis is intended to contribute to three goals: analyse Coinbase, derive recommendations for the cryptocurrency exchange’s management, potential investors, and other cryptoeconomy participants, and create a better understanding of the crypto-industry and an enhanced acceptance of cryptocurrencies. For these purposes, Coinbase was used as a single case study and analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. A Five C’s analysis was applied in the qualitative part, complemented by SWOT and PESTLE analyses and Porter’s Five Forces. The quantitative analysis, in turn, consisted of eleven key ratios that were compared to Nasdaq’s and Intercontinental Exchange’s ratios.
Coinbase’s Nasdaq listing is a caesura for the cryptoeconomy since it is the first listing of a major cryptocurrency exchange in the USA. Coinbase’s opening share price exceeds the reference price by more than 50%, resulting in Coinbase’s valuation to top the aggregated value of the two well-established, traditional exchanges Intercontinental Exchange and Nasdaq. Given this listing’s significance and size under consideration of Coinbase’s relatively short existence and small revenue size, the question emerges whether the valuation is caused by Coinbase’s business model or the cryptocurrency hype.