Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), which owns the New York Stock Exchange, has sold 1.4 percent of Coinbase shares earlier this month for $1.2 billion.
Revealed in an earnings call on Thursday, ICE CFO Scott Hill highlighted that the group gained $900 million in net profit from that single trade in the cryptocurrency exchange shares. It will utilize the proceeds in paying off debts ahead of the schedule.
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“When you think about the Coinbase proceeds – that gives us some additional flexibility as we kind of move into the rest of the year,” said ICE’s incoming CFO, Warren Gardiner.
ICE’s investment in the crypto exchange was made under its subsidiary NYSE, which participated in Coinbase’s $75 million Series C funding round closed in January 2015. The investment turned out to be a massive success as the returns came in many-fold.
Cashing Out
Coinbase went public on April 14 via a direct listing on Nasdaq, a direct competitor of the NYSE. Many Coinbase executives also cashed out at the bumper listing of the crypto exchange, the most highlighted one being the Founder and CEO Brian Armstrong’s trade of 2 percent of his holdings, which brought him $292 million.
Additionally, ICE is the owner of Bakkt, another United States-based cryptocurrency exchange that deals in derivatives. Moreover, Bakkt is gearing up for public listing via a SPAC merger.
“We expect that Bakkt’s merger with Victory Park Spac will be completed toward the end of this quarter. We expect Q2 adjusted operating expenses to be in the range of $742 million to $752 million, including approximately $35 million of additional expense related to Bakkt,” Hill added.
