Japanese crypto exchange Coincheck eyes Nasdaq listing after $1.25B SPAC deal

Coincheck Inc., a Japan-based crypto exchange with over 1.5 million verified customers, is eyeing Nasdaq listing after a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger with Thunder Bridge Capital Partners IV, Inc.

The combined holding company would be called Coincheck Group, N.V and is expected to list on Nasdaq after finalization of the deal by the second quarter of 2022 with a ticker symbol “CNCK.”

SPACs are publicly traded corporations that do not conduct business. They sell their stock to the public in order to obtain funding for the future acquisition of a private company.

The value of the merger deal is reported at $1.25 billion for 125 million shares and upon completion, the combined holding company will receive $237 million in cash held in trust by Thunder Bridge IV. The deal has been approved by the board of directors of Coincheck, Coincheck parent company Monex Group, Inc. and Thunder Bridge IV.

Coincheck and Thunder Bridge didn’t respond to requests for comments from Cointelegraph at the time of publishing.

After a data breach in 2018, Coincheck crypto exchange was acquired by Monex Group for $33.5 million and the new combined holdings would act as a subsidiary of the crypto exchange’s parent company. Monex Group, Inc. currently owns 94.2 percent of Coincheck and will keep all of its shares at closing. The parent company is expected to own 82 percent of the merged firm.

Related: Japanese crypto exchanges aim to catch up with coin listings: Report

Coincheck won’t be the first firm eyeing a public listing via a SPAC merger, in fact, in 2021, several renowned crypto services providers and mining firms took the SPAC merger deal. Bakkt went public with a SPAC while a $3.3 billion mining company chose the SPAC merger along with several others.

Many market experts claim the reason for such high popularity of SPAC mergers is its distinct advantages over other kinds of finance and liquidity. SPACs often offer higher valuations, less dilution, faster access to finance, more certainty and fewer regulatory requirements than traditional IPOs.