Coinbase Makes Full-Scale Entry into the IPO Market

The first target company is smart ring maker Oura, which adopts a conditional purchase subscription method that reflects investor preferences.

This fleshes out its super-app strategy targeting U.S. retail investors, and is an example of a cryptocurrency exchange expanding its territory into traditional financial markets.

IPO participation opportunities that were previously centered on institutional investors are expected to expand to retail investors with the launch of Coinbase's service.

Marketing algorithms aimed at retail investors are actually working, making IPO information sharing within the market more active and drawing investor interest.

Coinbase has introduced a policy that restricts IPO participation for 60 days if shares are sold within 30 days of listing.

This is a strategy to prioritize allocating shares to investors with a long-term holding tendency, thereby increasing market stability and strengthening its capacity to secure future IPO allocations.

Even if you apply for a subscription, the actual allocated quantity may differ, and there is also a possibility of no allocation; when demand is concentrated, it is common to receive only a smaller quantity than the amount applied for.

When participating in an IPO, constraints such as a lock-up on selling within a certain period exist, so an automated payment system via smart contracts has not yet been applied.

Unlike Robinhood and SoFi, which already provide IPO subscription services, Coinbase takes the strategy of expanding from an existing crypto exchange into the traditional securities market.

Going forward, its ability to secure IPO allocations and assign meaningful quantities to investors is expected to be a key factor in Coinbase's differentiation.

Previously, assets had to be issued with cash or stablecoins as collateral, but this feature eliminates the burden of asset issuance.

Through a book transfer method between the Alpaca securities account and the Ondo-side account, immediate conversion to stocks is possible upon repayment, dramatically improving the speed and efficiency of the tokenization process.

The latest SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) guidelines do not state it explicitly, but they suggest the possibility of implicit permission for the Type B model.

This is meaningful in that it opens a token market where holders become actual shareholders, going beyond existing price-tracking tokens.

Even with a custodial model, if shareholder rights are guaranteed through appropriate mechanisms, it can comply with regulations.

The method in which a company directly issues tokens is the safest, but it takes a lot of time to implement and is slow.

In the U.S. market, the pace of technology adoption may actually slow down as the institutionalization process proceeds, and the success cases of projects like Ondo Finance are likely to affect the market's pace.

Since the SEC's innovation exemption is a temporary five-year allowance, it remains to be seen whether it will be converted into permanent regulation, and this is a time when institutional supplements such as stablecoin reserve regulations and securing liquidity are needed.