Coinbase Closes $300 Mln Funding Round, Confirms $8 Bln Valuation
The market bears didn’t stop investors from putting money into promising cryptocurrency startup. Coinbase, a San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange, reports about successfully finishing its Series E funding round, raking in a jaw-dropping $300 mln.
Urvashi VermaHundreds of potentially listed coins
The most recent funding round was led by Tiger Capital, a leading financial services company. Asiff Hirji, the COO at Coinbase, claims that the gargantuan amount of investments will help further propel cryptocurrency adoption. On top of that, Hirji makes a bold statement about the exchange’s listing plans, predicting that “hundreds” of new coins will be available on the exchange. As U.Today reported earlier, Coinbase has recently listed Circle’s stablecoin USDC.
As of now, only a handful of cryptocurrencies are available on the most popular fiat-to-crypto exchange in the US. However, the crypto giant was slammed by the community after listing “highly experimental” altcoin 0x (ZRX) that prompted criticism linked to shady listing rules.
IPO talks are intensifying
The successful completion of the Series E funding round could be an indicator of an upcoming IPO. Last week, CNBC’s Ran NeuNer stirred a substantial amount of buzz in the crypto space by announcing Coinbase’s IPO plans. While NeuNer was criticized for his misleading tweets, one cannot rule out that the company may go public as early as next year. After all, at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2018 in September, Brian Armstrong also made it clear that such a possibility exists, but he didn’t specify the exact timing.
A crypto-first company
On Oct. 2, Recode broke the news that Coinbase is currently valued at $8 bln. The information was quickly picked up by other news outlets, but there was no official confirmation until today.
Despite the crypto rout, the US behemoth managed to remain profitable in 2018, but there was a necessity to diversify its revenue sources. Coinbase, while witnessing declining trading volumes, plans to remain at the top of its game by charging custodian fees and adding new security tokens. Still, Hirji emphasizes that Coinbase will remain a crypto-first company.
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