- Coinbase has increased its proposed bond offering to $2 billion from $1.5 billion.
- The company saw a surge in investor demand, bringing at least $7 billion in bids, according to Bloomberg.
- The bonds are rated junk by S&P Global.
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Coinbase has increased the size of its bond sale to $2 billion from the original $1.5 billion, after receiving an influx of bids from private investors, according to a press release from the cryptocurrency exchange on Tuesday.
There were at least $7 billion in offers for the bonds, Bloomberg reported, citing someone familiar with the matter.
Coinbase said it would offer two bonds – one maturing October 1, 2028 that would carry a coupon of 3.375% per year and a second maturing October 1, 2031, with a coupon of 3.625% per year.
The swell in demand reflects investors’ positive outlook on the company and its creditworthiness, thanks to their faith in the crypto space, analysts said.
“Coinbase cemented itself as a reputable US company acting as the top on-ramp to crypto and a primary custodian for institutional-grade products. $7 billion worth of bids is not a total surprise US debt investors are willing to get exposure to a significant player in the crypto infrastructure,” Eliezer Ndinga, research lead at 21 Shares, told Insider.
Coinbase initially announced the $1.5 billion bonds package on Monday in a press release. The company had said that it planned to use the money to fund takeovers, develop new technologies and products plus any additional investments.
The bonds were rated BB+ by S&P Global, which is a notch below investment grade, meaning that they are likely to be riskier than paper that is rated more highly. But S&P Global said the rating was a favorable one because of the company’s “very low” risk, strong liquidity, “track record of avoiding security breaches” and scale.
Coinbase is the largest publicly listed cryptocurrency exchange and has benefited from the rise in popularity of crypto tokens like bitcoin. Prior to this the company listed on the Nasdaq in February. By the second quarter of this year, the crypto exchange generated $2 billion in net revenue with a total of 68 million users.
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