Coinbase (Ticker: COIN) went public on the NASDAQ today, and NBA legend Kevin Durant is a huge winner.
Coinbase was trading at $328.28 at market close today. The company is valued at $85.7 billion, meaning Durant saw a 53x profit.
Durant’s Investments
Durant is no stranger to making major money moves. He and his business partner, Rich Kleiman, founded Thirty Five Ventures. According to Forbes, 15 full-time employees work for the business and run Durant’s foundations, endorsements, and startup investments.
Thirty-Five Ventures also has a production team that aims to create basketball-themed content for ESPN and Apple.
Durant told Forbes in a 2019 interview that his goal is to build generational wealth.
I want to use the checks I get from companies to create true generational wealth.
Kevin Durant
Durant told Forbes that he anticipates having kids someday and is concerned for their well-being.
I know there’ll be kids popping up in my family, and I want them to start above this roof. The only way to get there for your family is to create money, and I want to do it in a cooler way, not just being greedy and accumulating as much as I can.
Kevin Durant
Durant has invested in more than 40 startups and companies, including Coinbase, and has seen gains of up to 400%, Forbes reports.
In 2019, Durant earned $35 million from off-court investments alone, reports Stephen Beslic of Basketball Network.
What is Coinbase?
Coinbase is a platform for cryptocurrency enthusiasts to invest or trade. It currently has 43 million users and is used in more than 100 countries.
It offered shares of its company to the public for the first time today through a direct public offering (DPO). The company issued its share straight to the public rather than going through the traditional route of issuing new shares, raising extra capital from investors, or getting assistance from banks. Thus, demand determined the price of the stock. And it was clearly in demand, as it opened $100 more expensive than its reference price.
The stock’s volatility was high in its debut due to the nature of its listing. Coinbase opened up at $356 per share, soared to $429 per share, and fell to a low of $310 per share. It closed at $328.28 per share.
