Coinbase to launch IEO platform in a year’s time, exec reveals

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U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) intends to launch an initial exchange offering (IEO) platform in less than a year’s time, a top executive has revealed. The exchange has been the most dominant in the United States, although recent advancements by its rivals including Huobi and Binance seem to have rattled it. However, Coinbase U.K. CEO Zeeshan Feroz noted that the exchange still has an edge over its competition as it has nurtured a great relationship with the regulators.

Feroz made the revelation during an event in London yesterday, Crypto Briefing reports. He expressed his conviction that once the exchange launches the IEO platform, it will meet the SEC’s requirements.

“We hope that our investment in the last few years into these [regulatory] relationships, and in the way we’ve listed assets, has future-proofed our business. That’s been our strategy all along,” he explained.

Feroz wasn’t the only Coinbase exec sharing the exchange’s plans. Speaking during the CoinDesk Invest: Asia conference, the head of institutional sales in Asia Kayvon Pirestani also indicated that the exchange was intent on launching an IEO platform.

“We think there’s a really interesting opportunity there for Coinbase. In a nutshell, Coinbase is carefully exploring not only the IEO space but also STOs [security token offerings]. But I can’t make any formal announcements right now.”

And while plans for an IEO were in high gear, Pirestani revealed that the exchange wasn’t as far along when it came to regulated securities offerings. While Coinbase has prepared itself for the expected security tokens market by acquiring key firms that are registered as broker dealers, the market regulators haven’t been as enthusiastic about the prospect.

Pirestani said that while security tokens have received much hype as the next phase of the crypto market, the reality on the ground is quite different. These tokens are talked about a lot but traded much less, he remarked.

As IEOs rise in prominence, an SEC official has previously warned firms facilitating them that they could be violating securities laws. Valerie Szczepanik, the SEC’s senior advisor for digital assets warned these firms that “if they are not registered they will find themselves in trouble in the U.S., if they have a U.S. issuer or U.S. buyers, if they are operating on the U.S. market.”

Nevertheless, IEOs have continued to attract a lot of attention, with notable exchanges such as Bitfinex, KuCoin and Binance all launching IEO platforms. As CoinGeek reported earlier this year, IEOs have had registered positive returns at a time when ICOs have flopped.