Recently, Coinbase, a US-listed exchange, has not only been caught up in the public opinion storm of “demanding a large amount of listing fees”, but recent revelations suggest that five senior executives, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, are planning to sell Coinbase shares worth $900 million.
(Prior context:
Binance is accused of receiving $100 million in ‘listing fees’, He Yi extinguishes the fire: the rules are very transparent, FUD will never disappear.)
(Background supplement:
Sun Yuchen mocks Coinbase: cbBTC is not BTC, BlackRock demands faster custody of Bitcoin withdrawals.)
Brian Armstrong, CEO of the US-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, recently took advantage of the public opinion storm surrounding Binance’s “demand for $100 million in listing fees” to promote his own exchange, claiming that listing on Coinbase is free.
However, Brian Armstrong’s claim was quickly rebutted by Andre Cronje, director of the Fantom Foundation, also known as the father of DeFi, and CTO of Sonic Labs. Andre stated that Binance had never charged so-called listing fees for his project, but Coinbase had demanded hefty fees.
Andre also emphasized that he had not signed a non-disclosure agreement, so he was very willing to provide proof of Coinbase’s charges. Coinbase may argue that this is unrelated to the listing fee and is other fees, but this will still turn into the project’s listing cost. Andre was aware that Coinbase may make some legal distinctions, but he was very willing to disclose all evidence and let the public judge.
Sun Yuchen counterattacks Coinbase
Not only that, Justin Sun, founder of Tron and head of the HTX exchange, also stated that Coinbase’s claim of “zero listing fee” contradicts the facts.
In response to Sun Yuchen’s clarification, Binance founder Zhao Changpeng (CZ) also tweeted:
Coinbase executives plan to sell shares worth $900 million
While the “listing fee” storm has not subsided, Coinbase was recently exposed by foreign media “Barrons”, including Brian Armstrong and five senior executives, who are planning to sell Coinbase shares worth more than $900 million through a transaction plan.
Among them, according to a document submitted by Coinbase to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on October 30, Brian Armstrong adopted the so-called Rule 10b5-1 plan on August 15, planning to convert the Coinbase Class B shares held by the Brian Armstrong Living Trust, for which he is a trustee, into 3,750,000 Class A shares for sale. The plan is expected to start on November 18 and end before November 14, 2025.
Barrons further pointed out that Class B shares are not publicly traded. This transaction plan will automatically execute transactions under certain conditions (price, trading volume, time, etc.). The reason why Coinbase insiders adopt this plan is to avoid being accused of possessing non-public information.
Although Coinbase has not yet commented on this stock sale plan by senior executives, the comments made by Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas during a financial report conference call in February this year seem to contradict the current stock sale plan of Coinbase executives. Alesia spoke as follows at the time:
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