The Bitcoin Exchange Coinbase has filed a so-called Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company is thus taking the first step towards going public. But there is still a long way to go until then.

Coinbase, one of the largest Bitcoin exchanges in the United States, wants to go public

As stated in a press release posted by the company on December 17th this year on Medium Coinbase recently filed a first draft of a corresponding application for approval with the relevant authority, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The application is a so-called “Form S-1” which contains essential information about the business area and balance sheet data of the affiliated companies. Now it is up to the stock exchange supervisory authority to decide on the further course of the IPO.

Rumors have been circulating about the IPO of the previously private Bitcoin Rejoin for some time. In July of this year, the Reuters news agency reported about corresponding plans, referring to “internal sources”.

Crypto analytics firm Messari estimates Coinbase’s enterprise value at a sizable $ 28 billion.

Following the announcement of Coinbase’s initial public offering, we valued the company at $ 28 billion. Coinbase is one of the most prominent exchanges with $ 1 billion daily volume in December.

Coinbase announcement comes with Bitcoin Bull Run

It should not be a coincidence that Coinbase is publishing its project now of all times. After all, Bitcoin and Co. are getting a lot of media attention these days thanks to the ongoing price rally. Within the last seven days alone, BTC was able to gain a good 25 percent in value . Many institutional investors are therefore extremely bullish these days and fantasize about Bitcoin prices above 400,000 US dollars.

Coinbase has recently expanded its already dominant market presence even further. For example, it became known that the Exchange had also made MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin shopping tour possible. In total, MicroStrategy had purchased 40,824 BTC ; the OTC order volume on Coinbase is impressive.

In addition, the Exchange has played an important role as a mainstream onboarding platform for private investors inside and outside the USA for years. The move to become a public company therefore only seems logical.

Last Coinbase was due to a blog article by CEO Brian Armstrong hit the headlines . In it, Armstrong prohibited its employees from participating in political discussions, for example on Twitter. The reason was to maintain the greatest possible openness towards all political camps. The aim is to create an open, decentralized and inclusive financial system that can only be done in isolation from any political theory of color.

Anyone who does not want to comply with the new regulations can claim a “generous severance payment”. The Post sparked a controversial debate about freedom of expression and the employer’s wide arm, including personal matters. Even Twitter founder and Bitcoiner Jack Dorsey got involved.

In a Twitter thread, Ripple CTO Schwartz confirmed that the community could decide to burn 48 million XRP tokens. This is related to the specific provisions of the protocol.

Not only the Bitcoin course is currently experiencing a soaring

Almost in its slipstream, the Altcoin Ripple (XRP) has also soared to new heights . Now, however, threatens a huge damper on the part of the validators. The chief technology officer of Ripple, David Schwartz, has according to media reportsadmitted that the company could be forced by the validators to burn its 48 billion XRP tokens. Whether the company agrees or not does not matter in the ledger’s log.

Ripple itself currently has half of the total XRP offering. In the past, there have been several accusations of price manipulation due to the sale of tokens. However, Ripple has always firmly denied these allegations. In order to avoid such allegations, however, Bitcoin Up has recently discontinued this sales practice.

In a Twitter thread , Schwartz confirmed that the community could well vote for Ripple to burn its entire stash of XRP tokens. Should it actually come to that, there is nothing Ripple can do about it. The blockchain lives from its democracy.

Ripple doesn’t have a democratic majority in the community

The XRP Ledger is run by independent participants from a global XRP community, with Ripple itself playing an important role. In it, Independent Validator Nodes come to an agreement on the sequence and validity of XRP transactions. Active validators of the ledger are, for example, universities, stock exchanges and financial institutions. There are currently 36 validators, of which Ripple has six.

XRP ledger changes require an 80 percent approval rate from the ledger’s validators. They will take effect if this threshold is maintained for two weeks. In particular, in June the XRPL validators voted to accept a new amendment entitled “Check Amendment” without Ripple’s consent. The change introduces the ability for users to write each other checks for a predetermined amount to XRP that can be cashed at a later date.

CEO Brad Garlinghouse recently provided an insight into the compositionhis clientele. Only 5 percent are US citizens. In addition, rumors are circulating that the company is planning to move its headquarters from San Francisco to Japan. With this, Ripple co-founders Chris Larsen and Garlinghouse express their frustration at the lack of regulatory clarity in the United States.