2018-11-15 11:46 |
Coinbase is currently the main crypto exchange in the United States. The company has been recently valued at $8 billion USD. This has made its CEO, Brian Armstrong, “worth” $.3 billion USD. How, in about six years, did this company become so successful? NewsBTC has recently published an article explaining this story.
The Story Of CoinbaseCoinbase was launched in 2012. That’s when Bitcoin was still a child and only a promise. The bull run of 2013 had not even happened yet at the time. Today. Coinbase is, together with the international Binance, the main name when the subject are crypto exchanges.
The company has expanded its features ever since the launch and went from a small San Francisco-based startup to a giant of the crypto industry for both the retail and institutional sectors. The company initially offered brokerage services for those intrigued by the potential of the Bitcoin world, but ended up offering a lot more than that over time.
Coinbase’s exchange, formerly known as GDAX, was its main brokerage service. Now called Coinbase Pro, the company generates fees on every trade made. This, according to the NewsBTC article, is one of the secrets: it does not matter which side the markets go, Coinbase wins. While there is still volume, there is still profit.
Coinbase, which has recently received an investment of $300 million USD without even needing it, as some people of the company affirmed, is certainly a giant of the market. Armstrong’s stake on the firm is actually worth $1.3 billion USD. His estimated net worth was “only” $900 million USD last year, so you can see just how much his assets went up recently.
The exchange had a very busy 2018. It hired high-profile people to work there, has gotten new licenses and created new products. It has even launched Coinbase Custody, a new product that is aimed at the custody market. Other two new products this yeart were Coinbase Institutional Coverage Group and Coinbase Markets.
This company has gotten so big that they have even thought about the possibility of entering the ETF market, which will be a huge boost for Bitcoin and the whole market when it is finally launched.
In a new recent effort, the token has made a partnership with Circle to use its USD Coin (USDC), a new stablecoin that would be used in the system to let people have a liquid way to trade their assets.
Coinbase has a fierce competition, that’s for sure. Companies like Binance have grown a lot more than it this year. Also, there are companies like the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), which will launch Bakkt, a new crypto trading service and Fidelity Investments is also planning on launching a similar platform.
Despite Coinbase’s efforts to dominate the market, the company will have to struggle a lot before it can become the king of cryptos worldwide if it depends on companies like Binance, ICE and Fidelity Investments.
It will be hard for large investors not to choose ICE or Fidelity, which are more organized and established, over Coinbase, so this is the main problem that there is in the future of the company.
It is also important to notice that the company will try to diversify its portfolio to follow Binance in their path outside of the United States, so you can see that the exchange is certainly not waiting for anyone.
According to data gathered by NewsBTC, most of the success of Coinbase up to now is largely because of small retail investors and low volume traders. Because of this, services like Coinbase Learn were created to help these people.
However, to remain a significant player in the market during 2019 when ICE and Fidelity will have already launched their own products, Coinbase will have to make its biggest effort so far.
Similar to Notcoin - Blum - Airdrops In 2024