Investing through his venture capital firm, QueensBridge Ventures, Nas first invested in Coinbase back in 2013, as part of the company’s “Series B” funding round. That round raised $25 million at a valuation of $143 million. QueensBridge typically invests $100 – $500 thousand when it participates in a private funding round. Using that range, one could extrapolate that QB was able to secure 100,000 – 500,000 shares of Coinbase thanks to that investment nearly a decade ago. When Coinbase went public on April 14, 2021 it ended its first day of trading at $342 a share. At that level, Nas’ presumed 100-500k shares were worth between…
$34 and $171 million
An absolutely incredible return on a presumed $100-500k investment. And who knew? Maybe Coinbase was about to be the next Google or Apple and soon Nas would be sitting on a billion dollar crypto stock fortune. Unfortunately that turned out to not be the case, so far. Coinbase stock is down 83% from its all-time high, including a 25% drop in just the last 24 hours alone. So, I really, really, really hop Nas decided to sell at some point in the last year. After struggling between May 2021 and October 2021, Coinbase’s share price climbed from around $230 back up to its $342 IPO level by mid-November. Unfortunately, as of this writing, that is looking like the absolutely peak before an extremely precipitous fall. On Monday Coinbase closed at $103 a share. On Tuesday it closed at $73 a share. On Tuesday afternoon, Coinbase released its quarterly earnings report. It was ugly to say the least. Transaction volume is down. Costs are up. Revenue was a miss. The company is implementing a hiring freeze. As I type this article, Coinbase is down 27% compared to yesterday, at $53 per share. At $53 per share, if Nas still owns a presumed 100-500k Coinbase shares, those shares are worth between…
$5 and $26 million
Still an impressive return, BUT if the $5 million range is correct, that’s “only” around $3 million after taxes if he sold today. That’s a pretty far cry from the amazing $100 million windfall we wanted so badly to be true a year ago.
