Shortly after COIN’s direct listing, it was deciphered that multiple early investors and executives sold billions in equity, as identified by insider activity reports for Coinbase’s COIN stock.
As reported by a representative of Coinbase, that though sellers maintained strong ownership positions, but from the filings it can be seen that the filings showed that various executives sold a high percentage of the company’s stake.
It has been revealed that a total of 12,965,079 shares were sold by insiders, worth over $4.6 billion at COIN’s $344.38 per share Friday close. The aforementioned revelation was from Data from Capital Market Laboratories and confirmed by filings on Coinbase’s Investor Relations website.
Notable transactions include Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas selling some 255,500 shares at a price of $388.73 (though her Form 4 states that she retains options), while CEO Brian Armstrong sold 749,999 shares in three transactions at various prices, netting a total of $291,827,966.
According to his Form 4 disclosure, after the sale Armstrong retains 300,001 shares worth over $1 billion. In a filing prior to the direct listing however, he was reported to have 36,851,833 shares, indicating that he sold just over 2% of his stake in the company.
Capital Market Laboratories’ data did not indicate that any directors or insiders purchased additional shares, only sold. The sales can also be seen on OpenInsider’s SEC Form 4 screener.
A representative for Coinbase told Cointelegraph that the percentage equity share of each executive is not accurately reported by these reporting services, and that the sales represent only a fraction of the executive and insider ownership.