Early Coinbase backer Garry Tan is keeping the “vast majority” of his shares because of this deal
A week after the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase staged a direct listing, much of the focus remains on the wealth that the listing generated for executives at the company, its board members, and its private investors. Citing data from Capital Market Laboratories, Cointelegraph on Monday noted, for example, that 12,965,079 shares worth close to $5 billion at the time had been sold by insiders by the close of stock market on Friday.
One early investor who sold some of those shares is Garry Tan of the venture firm Initialized Capital. Tan worked previously as a partner with Y Combinator, where he helped ensure that Coinbase was accepted into the program and he remained the primary contact for founder and CEO Brian Armstrong, backing Armstrong three more times with seed checks after launching Initialized Capital with two other YC alums: Alexis Ohanian and Harjeet Taggar. Before the li
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Garry Tan was among the first in the VC space to lend a check for working capital as demand for the Coinbase App soared in the early days of 2013.
On Wednesday, April 14, Coinbase (COIN) stock debuted on the Nasdaq exchange with the company’s listing valuations at $86 billion. Coinbase is the first major crypto business to debut on Wall Street and thus the euphoria in the crypto community was high. COIN stock debuted at $381 per share and closed at $328 in a choppy market on Wednesday. However, it is still 30% higher than Nasdaq’s reference price of $250. Let’s take a look at some of those investors who made a fortune betting on Coinbase in its early days of Silicon Valley. Back in 2013, Initialized Chief Capital Garry Tan saw an early opportunity in Coinbase.