Coincheck, Japan's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, will list on the U.S. NASDAQ this Wednesday, becoming the second cryptocurrency exchange to go public in the U.S. after Coinbase. According to Coincheck's official statement, this listing is completed through a merger with Thunder Bridge Capital via a de-SPAC transaction.
Coincheck's year-long preparation for listing has finally been completed
Coincheck and Thunder Bridge Capital submitted the final F-4 document to the U.S. SEC in May of this year, which is a key document required for foreign companies to list in the U.S. After months of revisions, the document was finally approved. In fact, Coincheck had initiated the listing process as early as 2022, but due to increased disclosure requirements for SPAC listings in the U.S., the plan was postponed to this year.
In a statement in November, Coincheck stated that this listing will help attract international investors, further recruit top talent, and carry out global mergers and acquisitions. Data provided by Coincheck's parent company Monex indicates that the company expects its market value to reach $1.3 billion after the merger.
What is de-SPAC? How does Coincheck do it?
A de-SPAC transaction refers to a private company merging with a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) to become a publicly listed company. In this transaction, Thunder Bridge IV raised $230 million during its IPO in 2021. After the merger is completed, the company will be renamed Coincheck Group N.V. and will trade on NASDAQ under the ticker 'CNCK'. The executive chairman of Coincheck will be Oki Matsumoto.
Since being acquired by Japan's online brokerage Monex Group for 3.6 billion yen (approximately $33.6 million) in 2018, Coincheck has become a subsidiary. Monex appointed JPMorgan as its sole financial advisor for this transaction, while Thunder Bridge received support from several investment banks including Galaxy Digital, Barclays Capital, and Cantor Fitzgerald & Co.
Coincheck: A well-known exchange that experienced a hacking incident
Looking back at 2018, Coincheck faced the largest exchange hacking incident at the time, losing $530 million worth of NEM tokens. However, Coincheck quickly compensated all 260,000 affected users in full with its own funds, winning market trust. This incident prompted the Japanese government to implement stricter KYC and reporting requirements for cryptocurrency exchanges.
(Japan's first virtual currency confiscation order! After the hacking incident, Coincheck returned 4.8 million yen to a man)
In the U.S. market, the most well-known cryptocurrency exchange stock is Coinbase (COIN), which, although its stock has been very sluggish during the bear market, has seen an increase of over 119% in the past year due to the approval of ETFs and the surge in the cryptocurrency market.
In the future, whether Coincheck can leverage international capital to expand into new areas remains to be seen.
This article discusses how Japan's second-largest exchange Coincheck is entering the U.S. NASDAQ, reversing its fate after experiencing a hacking incident. It first appeared in Chain News ABMedia.