Coinbase gives eligible US customers access to Oura IPO at offer price

Coinbase has expanded beyond crypto by giving eligible US customers access to IPO shares at the offer price before public trading begins. The first offering available through the service is smart-ring maker Oura, which is seeking to sell 50 million shares at an expected price of $40 to $44 each. That range would value the IPO at between $2.0 billion and $2.2 billion. Oura's registration statement says an unspecified portion of the offering will be available to retail investors through Coinbase Capital Markets at the IPO price. Neither Oura nor Coinbase disclosed the size of that allocation. Participation requires a Coinbase Capital Markets brokerage account and is currently limited to US residents. Customers can submit a conditional offer to buy through Coinbase's website or mobile platforms after an expected IPO price range becomes available. They must fund their brokerage accounts to cover the requested purchase. A request is not a guaranteed purchase because Coinbase receives a limited number of shares for each IPO. Customers may receive all, some or none of the shares they request, depending on supply and demand. Customers can cancel or change offers while the order window remains open. After the order book closes, allocated shares are booked to customers' brokerage accounts at the IPO price. The shares become tradable when public-market trading begins. Coinbase Capital Markets participates as a best-efforts selling-group member that aggregates customer orders and acts as their agent. It does not underwrite the offering, hold inventory or take the opposite side of customer trades. Apex Clearing Corporation provides execution, clearing and custody. The securities transactions remain within a conventional brokerage account operated by Coinbase Capital Markets and are separate from the digital-asset services provided by Coinbase Inc. Customers can sell allocated shares once public trading begins. Coinbase said customers who sell IPO shares within the first 30 days may be barred from participating in its IPO program for the following 60 days. Repeated early sales may also lead to smaller or less frequent allocations than those received by customers who hold their shares longer. The policy does not prohibit selling, but allows Coinbase to restrict future IPO participation after an early sale. SEC investor guidance says this practice, commonly known as flipping, is not prohibited under federal securities laws. Brokerage firms and underwriters can nevertheless discourage it by restricting access to future IPO allocations. Coinbase said it plans to add more IPO opportunities as selling-group allocations become available. The service extends Coinbase's US brokerage business further into traditional finance, but access remains limited by the number of shares Coinbase receives for each deal and customer demand.