Coinbase COO Emily Choi Secures 643,174 Performance-Based RSUs, Signaling Increased Equity Value
According to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ: COIN) reported in its January 10 filing that three performance-based restricted stock unit (RSU) tranches granted to President and COO Emily Choi have been officially earned upon meeting their targets. A total of 643,174 RSUs were confirmed, all of which are convertible into Class A common shares. Of these, 321,588 shares are linked to a relative total shareholder return metric and will vest on January 15, 2026, while the two remaining tranches of 160,793 shares each are tied to cumulative revenue and cumulative adjusted EBITDA targets and will vest on February 20, 2026. The company clarified that this award represents the certification and allocation of compensation determined by the performance period ending December 31, 2025—not any open-market purchase or sale—and that, assuming no forfeiture, Choi’s equity stake will increase further upon vesting. Based on the filing’s reference share price, the grant’s value is estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars, or several hundred billion Korean won.
Coinbase is one of the United States’ leading cryptocurrency exchanges and the first major digital-asset platform to list on NASDAQ. It provides retail and institutional clients with trading, custody, staking and on-chain infrastructure services, positioning itself as a compliance-focused, transparent “gateway” between traditional finance and the digital-asset world. As one of the largest listed crypto platforms by market capitalization, Coinbase has pursued aggressive restructuring, cost reduction and revenue diversification since its IPO. Choi joined Coinbase in 2018 after serving as M&A and strategy executive at LinkedIn, and as President and COO she now oversees product, operations and business development. Insider-holdings data indicate that she already ranks among the company’s largest individual shareholders, holding hundreds of thousands of Class A shares. (businessquant.com)
Recent developments surrounding Choi and Coinbase’s leadership team continue to draw attention. In November 2025, Choi exercised common-stock options, converted Class B shares into Class A shares and sold a portion in the open market—one of several large insider transactions—while in 2024 she disclosed stock sales exceeding $2 million. (stocktitan.net) At the same time, Coinbase is strengthening its executive bench by hiring a Chief of Staff to support Choi in fall 2025, and externally Choi has broadened her board experience by joining the board of identity-management firm Okta. (theblock.co) These insider compensation and trading patterns are becoming an increasingly important governance metric for investors as Coinbase navigates ongoing regulatory and legal challenges, including a bankruptcy-risk disclosure controversy and SEC litigation. (investing.com)