Coinbase with various product launches during the fourth quarter of 2018 is possibly at its best. The company which Lightspeed Venture Partner Semil Shah called ‘The Breakout Company of 2017’ recently finished its 12 Days of Coinbase with an introduction of features such as instant PayPal withdrawals, Coinbase Earn which is a customized version of Earn.com.
$300 Million fundraised for Series E
The most prominent activity is definitely the secure migration of over $5 Billion to an improved cold storage solution. Apart from this, the exchange raised an impressive $300 million Series E round at a valuation of $8 Billion dollars. This made it one of the most valued startups within the crypto ecosystem.
This was achieved with firms combining together such as Tiger Global Management, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator Continuity, and Polychain Capital among others.
Also Read: Binance Enlists Support for Constantinople Hard Fork
Introduction to Coinbase Ventures
The corporation has invested in several startups through Coinbase Ventures, it’s an investment arm. The Crypto data API Nomics, Starkware, Abacus Protocol, Securitize are some of the interesting investment performed. These new investments complement the previous investments such as Reserve – a stablecoin project and Unlock Protocol – an access control procedure built on the Ethereum blockchain, along with acquisitions such as Cipher Browser . More importantly, the rollout of the collateralized stablecoin ‘USDC’ at the exchange has been one of the most interesting developments.
Each USDC coin represents a US dollar and its value does not alter. Hence it proves to be a safe haven for traders during volatility. Since launching alongside Circle, the stablecoin has attained a landmark of $250 million issued in just a couple of months.
Given the number of leading crypto exchanges supporting USDC such as Bitfinex, KuCoin, Binance, Poloniex, Korbit among others it is most likely to be an alpha among the pack of stablecoins.
Some features include a ‘watchlist’ feature, a partnership with feature enables Coinbase customers across the United States to exchange their cryptocurrencies for gift cards at top retailers. Coinbase also revealed several new crypto assets within the exchange’s product offering. These include – BAT, CVC, DAI, DNT, GNT, LOOM, MANA, MKR, ZIL, ZRX.
Also Read: Ethereum ( ETH) supersedes Ripple (XRP) in terms of Market Cap
Coinbase envisions an Open Global Financial System
The exchange expanded its support across six European countries – Andorra, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Iceland, Isle of Man, and Lithuania. Coinbase Pro and Prime are not available to users from the above countries. They will have the facility to buy and sell cryptocurrency from coinbase.com along with the iOS and Android applications. This reflects significant advancement given the exchange already supports 33 countries. The latest fundraiser along with amplified headcount provides essential human and economic capital to move ahead.
“Adding the Assets Our Customers Have Come To Demand”
In a letter sent to employees, CEO Brian Armstrong wrote:
Our goal is to maintain the trusted experience our customers have come to expect while adding the assets our customers have come to demand. This quarter, we added more assets than in our entire prior history as a company, and expanded our services to more people in different countries. […].
