Coinbase raises $300 million in a New Round of Funding

Coinbase is one of the most important and most widespread cryptocurrency companies in the world. This US-based cryptocurrency exchange is already huge, but its future growth now seems set. The same comes as the company revealed that it managed to raise an additional $300 million in the new round of funding.

The money will come into a business venture that is gradually becoming the ultimate powerhouse of not just cryptocurrency, but blockchain as well. The exchange is much more than this, operating a digital wallet and many more third-party businesses that it bought or otherwise acquired. As its growth continues and its influence broadens, the company is slowly but surely becoming the first mega-crypto business in the world.

The $300 Million

The company revealed the latest funds it attained using a blog post. There, it stated that its Series E of funding was led by the Tiger Global Management, while Wellington Management, Y Combinator Continuity, Poly Chain and Andreessen Horowitz were also involved. The company now assesses that this investment places its post-money valuation at more than eight billion.

The company also stated that its mission continues to be the process of driving adoption of digital assets and cryptocurrencies It is not hard to see why this is the ultimate objective – in many ways Coinbase is right at the source of an influx of new users, especially those based in the western countries.

In the future, the company foresees that the funds it generated in the E round would be used to intensify and develop its international expansion and also develop its crypto-fiat infrastructure existing in developed markets.

The Exchange Offer Expansion

The exchange has also hinted where is this infrastructure change going to head. According to Coinbase, they are examining hundreds of different cryptocurrencies that could be listed at its exchange platforms. Not only this, but the company will also make sure that the system of the platform includes a groundwork that could support not hundreds but thousands of cryptocurrencies in the future.

Coinbase is also actively planning to develop additional so-called utility applications that would be used on the crypto market. These include the support for the USDC stablecoin by Circle as well as the Coinbase wallet. This latter is famous for years as the best solution for storing cryptocurrencies and continues to be the dominant one especially in North America and Europe.

Expanding its functionality and usability might not be that big of a priority for the company, having in mind its already dominant position in the markets of choice. But, the same dominance will not be attained if the company does not enforce the wallet system which has to improve along with the exchange offer expansion. After all, it would be hard to imagine that Coinbase would list hundreds of altcoins and do not provide digital wallet offer for most if not all of them.

Bringing in Businesses

Lastly, the company aims to provide more support for institutions that desire to enter in its crypto space. To do this, it is building its Custody offering. While Coinbase will remain a crypto-first business, the growth of the Coinbase ecosystem will be open to the financial system of the world.

In a sense, the company’s growth is the validation of not just things like bitcoin, used for anything between institutional investment and online betting, but the entire crypto space. Ultimately, the company sees this interaction between crypto and the traditional economic system as a process that will lead to a more open system of financeable to provide services to the entire world

The Example of Coinbase and Earn.com

Coinbase has so far reached a figure of $500 million in funding. Last August, the company obtained over $100 million in its Series D funding round. At that time, this provided its reported valuation with the estimate of $1.6 billion. Unlike the current round, that one was led by the IVP (Institutional Venture Partners), an investment company active in other tech ventures like Netflix and Dropbox.

But, the money is not used to be only invested in the company itself and its infrastructure. Instead, Coinbase is actively buying other businesses, like the microtasking Earn.com. This platform is used for direct advertising using cryptocurrencies and since it started working, the company managed to kickstart many altcoins through airdrops.

Now, with the expansion of the cryptocurrencies that will be listed, the idea behind this purchase has been made a lot more clear. There is little doubt that many similar ventures will be procured by this company and allow it to grow further. All the while the company is not simply fueling its own growth but the growth of the entire field.

The Undisputed

The Coinbase dominance in the near future remains undisputed, especially outside of the Asian market. However, the issue of countries that are supported by the platform remains a pressing issue for the company’s growth potential. Many countries that have the ability to open up accounts at Coinbase do not possess the option of purchasing or selling cryptocurrencies.

Instead, they are able to simply hold their assets at the wallet addresses. There is no clear roadmap when the company will provide support for these nations, in spite of the fact that many individuals are eagerly waiting for that moment and the rise in trading volume would provide a stronger bottom line to Coinbase. Here, an issue to that of the blocked airdrops at Earn.com for the US citizens is seen – Coinbase is so much in the long game that it fears first and foremost potential legal problems.

Like major investment drive in esports, for example, which is also holding back until the clear future is seen for a particular league (or the whole business space), here as well Coinbase wants to be a step in front of any regulatory surprises. At the same time, the company does not want any potential legal problems with its existing services, so it has strictly regulated itself even when the laws do not directly demand it.

This approach is currently working, but the undisputed champion of the crypto space will have to reexamine it as soon as a potential challenger enters the ring – it will not have to wait for long for this to happen.

Source: CoinDesk