Some five months after it was first reported to be exploring the option, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc. today announced that it has confidentially submitted a draft registration Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering.

Coinbase did not provide any details as to what form the IPO may take, saying only that the S-1 is expected to become effective after the SEC completes its review process, subject to market and other conditions.

There are two IPO options on the table for Coinbase: a traditional public offering or a direct listing. Reports earlier this year had Coinbase talking to banks suggesting that they were looking at a traditional underwritten listing, but the company was also said to not be ruling out a direct listing.

Direct listings have slowly grown in popularity as they offer a way for a company to go public without the costs involved with a traditional IPO. Notable companies that have pursued a direct listing include Spotify Technology SA, Slack Technologies Inc. and more recently both Palantir Technologies Inc. and Asana Inc. Sept. 29.

A valuation on Coinbase for a 2021 IPO is at best a guess at this point as well. As of its last venture capital round in 2018, Coinbase was valued at $8 billion but since that time it has kept growing both organically and through acquisitions. Some of those acquisitions included blockchain tracking startup Neutrino srl in February 2019, bitcoin custody provider Xapo Inc. in August 2019 and the Peter Thiel-backed cryptocurrency brokerage startup Tagomi Systems Inc. in May.

Ahead of its plans to file for an IPO, Coinbase welcomed two new people to its board in August: Gokul Rajaram, a veteran executive at Google Inc., Doordash Inc. and Square Inc., along with Silicon Valley legend and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen.

Coinbase’s IPO filing has been months in the making, but the timing coincides with bitcoin hitting record high levels.

Bitcoin broke through the $20,000 for the first time at 8:44 a.m. EST Wednesday and has continued to rise since, peaking at $23,653.63 at 12:14 p.m. EST today. Although there have been some dips and prof-taking, bitcoin was trading at $22.999.71 as of 8:49 p.m. EST, up 6% over the last 24 hours.

Image: Coinbase