Coinbase has expanded its push beyond crypto by giving eligible US customers access to IPO shares at the offer price before public trading begins.
The first offering available through the service is smart-ring maker Oura, which is seeking to sell 50 million shares at an expected price of $40 to $44 each. That range would value the IPO at between $2.0 billion and $2.2 billion.
The company's registration statement says an unspecified portion of the offering will be available to retail investors through Coinbase Capital Markets at the IPO price. Neither Oura nor Coinbase disclosed the size of the allocation.
How Coinbase IPO requests work
Participation requires a Coinbase Capital Markets brokerage account and is currently only available to US residents.
Eligible customers can submit a Conditional Offer to Buy through Coinbase's web or mobile platforms once an expected IPO price range is available. Customers must fund their brokerage accounts to cover the requested purchase.
The offer is just a request, not a guaranteed purchase. Coinbase says it receives a limited number of shares for each IPO, so customers may receive all, some, or none of the shares they requested, depending on supply and demand. Offers can be canceled or changed while the order window remains open.
Once the order book closes, allocated shares are booked to customers' brokerage accounts at the IPO price. The shares become tradable when public-market trading begins.
Coinbase Capital Markets participates as a best-efforts selling-group member, aggregating customer orders and acting as their agent. The broker-dealer does not underwrite the offering, hold inventory, or take the opposite side of customer trades. Apex Clearing Corporation provides execution, clearing, and custody.
The structure keeps the securities transactions within a conventional brokerage account operated by Coinbase Capital Markets, separate from the digital-asset services provided by Coinbase Inc.
Customers can sell allocated shares once public trading begins, although doing so shortly after an IPO can affect their access to future offerings.
Coinbase said customers who sell IPO shares within the first 30 days may be barred from participating in its IPO program for the following 60 days. Repeated early sales may also result in smaller or less frequent allocations compared with customers who hold their shares for longer periods.
The policy does not prohibit customers from selling their shares. Instead, it allows Coinbase to restrict future IPO participation after an early sale.
SEC investor guidance says the practice, commonly known as “flipping,” is not prohibited under federal securities laws. However, brokerage firms and underwriters can discourage it by restricting customers' access to future IPO allocations.
Coinbase said it plans to add more IPO opportunities as selling-group allocations become available.
The launch extends Coinbase's US brokerage business further into traditional finance, giving retail customers another route into primary-market offerings rather than requiring them to wait for shares to begin trading publicly. However, access remains constrained by the number of shares Coinbase receives for each deal and demand from customers.
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