American cryptocurrency company Coinbase successfully closed round E of fundraising, during which it managed to raise $ 300 million "to accelerate the spread of cryptocurrency and digital assets." This was written by President and Chief Operating Officer Asif Hirdzhi in his blog, confirming that the market valuation of the exchange exceeded $ 8 billion.
The fundraising round was led by the Tiger Global Management multi-billion dollar fund. Y Combinator Continuity, Wellington Management, Andreessen Horowitz, Polychain and others also took part in it.
According to Khirji, the funds received will be spent on the following items of expenditure :
- Global expansion – building infrastructure between Fiat and cryptocurrencies in regulated markets around the world;
- The rapid expansion of the number of supported assets – “We see hundreds of cryptocurrencies that can be added to our platform today and we will create the foundation to expand our support to thousands in the future”;
- The practical use of cryptocurrency – this includes, for example, support for steablkoina USDC , which was added to the platform recently;
- Attracting financial institutions to cryptocurrencies – adding features and crypto assets to the custodial service to attract institutional investors into the digital currency space.
“We are proud that millions of people turn to Coinbase as their starting point in the world of cryptocurrencies. We take our responsibility very seriously.
We strive to be a simple and trusted tool for anyone who wants to get acquainted with cryptocurrency . We believe that the growth of Coinbase is a confirmation that the entire ecosystem will only continue to grow, which ultimately will lead to the emergence of a more open financial system in the world , ”writes Hirji.
The information that Coinbase is at the final stage of negotiations, as a result of which its market valuation will be $ 8 billion, with reference to anonymous sources at the beginning of the month published the portal Recode.
He also said that Coinbase is negotiating with Tiger Global and its shareholders to raise funds, but then it was said about the amount of $ 500 million. It was assumed that $ 250 million would be added to the company's assets, while the second part would go to buy shares from today's owners.
Recall that last year Coinbase was estimated at $ 1.6 billion.
Also today, a publication appeared in Bloomberg , according to which Coinbase expects to receive revenue of $ 1.3 billion this year, despite the general decline in the cryptocurrency market. The documents obtained by the publication indicate that this value comes from the income from commissions from trading on its platform, as well as the profits and losses from cryptocurrency assets in its own hands.
The same documents state that in 2016 Coinbase revenue was only $ 17 million, and net loss was $ 16 million. In 2017, however, the company was able to make a profit of $ 380 million. It is expected that profit for the current year will be $ 456 million.
According to numerous sources, Coinbase hoped to come to this round of fundraising even with a higher estimate, but the fall in the price of Bitcoin limited its possibilities. In addition, according to some data, the number of US users of the platform fell by about 80% from a peak at the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018. However, these factors did not prevent the company from increasing its rating over the last year by more than 5 times.
“For this round, we simply did not choose investors from companies that do not have a constructive vision of the cryptocurrency sphere ,” Hirji said.
"This round and the future of cryptocurrency should generally go beyond the concept of asset value."
