General Info about Coinbase
Coinbase history and background
Coinbase is a company which allows users to trade in cryptocurrencies which is headquartered in San Francisco California. The company started in 2012 co founded by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam. The company however began by merely buying bitcoin before later on adding other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Litecoin, and many others.
In its infancy, Coinbase suffered several setbacks such as hacks, regulatory issues, and low uptake of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Whichever the case, the platform was able to grow by employing security and legal compliance strategies.
In 2013, the Company raised $5 million from a venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. This was a watershed development for the company as it spurred its growth and made it offer additional features. In the same year, the company also launched the first mobile app for iOS enabling users to buy or sell bitcoins wherever they are.
In 2015 market expansion continued as it secured an investment of $75 million from a group of Venture capital firms that had the New York stock exchange in attendance. This enabled the company to keep progressing in its growth and the broadening of its services.
In 2016, Coinbase implemented the “Coinbase Vault,” a new feature that enabled users to protect their digital resources with an extra layer of security.
Coinbase became the first cryptocurrency exchange to receive funding making the total company valuation cross $1 billion in the world’s history in 2018. This was of significance not only to the company itself, but to the entire industry, since it proved that the days of skepticism within digital currencies were gradually fading away.
The company went public in April 2021 on the Nasdaq exchange via direct listing raising $8.1 billion in total and pushed its evaluation at $90 billion.
Currently, Coinbase occupies one of the top positions among the world popular and reliable digital currencies. Its user base exceeds 43 million people, and the services are present in more than a hundred countries. The company provides full range of solutions from a digital currencies brokerage service, a more complex trading solutions for advanced users, and a custody solution targeting institutional clients.
As a key company in the ecosystem, Coinbase remains focused on launch new products addressing increasing users’ expectations and the demand for growing cryptocurrency usage.
Coinbase experienced cornucopia of expansion in the emerging cryptocurrency market place to the delight of investors in the long term financial investments. The movement of the company was achieved by focusing on increment of registered users and bulk of dollars transacted.
In January 2021, for the purposes of broadening its institutional clientele and enhancing the performance of the platform, Coinbase took over Bison Trails, a blockchain solutions provider.
In March 2021, Coinbase announced its plans to introduce an index fund which will be comprised of different cryptocurrencies. This was viewed as a response to the rise of institutional appetite for cryptocurrencies.
In April 2021, Coinbase revealed that it has developed a visa debit card, christened as the Coinbase Card, which will enable all users to use their virtual currencies for purchases from over 61 million merchants globally.
In May 2021, Coinbase announced that it had made application to the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States for a direct public offering, and in this way it was the first internet exchange to ever go public.
Towards the end of June 2021, Coinbase became the very first virtual currency trading platform to be quoted on Nasdaq trading platform at $65 billion market capitalisation.
The company also integrated other assets to the platform during the year 2021 including Aave (AAVE), Aragon (ANT), Bancor (BNT), Band Protocol (BAND), and several others.
Coinbase is also committed to developing and diversifying its services due to increasing demand for digital currencies as well as their institutional usage. The organization is equally aiming at the reduction of digital currencies exclusion from the general public as well as simplifying their adoption among the layman.
Coinbase’s key features include:
- One of the easiest ways to buy bitcoin and over ten other top altcoins. Coinbase allows you to buy cryptocurrency using your credit/debit cards, bank account, wire transfer, other cryptocurrencies, and other localized payment methods (varies by country).
- A global exchange that supports many fiat currencies. If Coinbase operates in your country, it will likely accept deposits in your local currency.
- A Coinbase owned USDC stablecoin. Unlike most exchanges, Coinbase uses its own USD coin (USDC), which it issued in conjunction with Circle. It is a fully regulated, transparent and verifiable stablecoin with regular audits.
- Coinbase Card. Coinbase customers from the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Ireland and the Netherlands can order a Visa debit card that allows them to buy and sell goods and services using cryptocurrency. More countries will be available soon, according to the company.
- Earn crypto with Coinbase. The Coinbase Earn program lets you earn cryptocurrency just by learning about it. Complete courses on cryptocurrencies like EOS or Stellar Lumens and receive $50 worth of them.
- Other bitcoin and cryptocurrency services. As a Coinbase customer, you can also use Coinbase’s custodial and non-custodial crypto wallets, OTC trading, Coinbase Commerce tools for businesses, and more.
- A great starting point for beginners. Coinbase is tailored for cryptocurrency beginners and has been the starting point for the majority of traders. There are also no trading charts, so if you need a more advanced trading interface, check out Coinbase Pro.
Is Coinbase secure?
Speaking of platform security, Coinbase takes the following steps to increase the security of its operations:
- 98% of customer funds are stored offline.
- Bitcoin and altcoins are geographically distributed in multiple cold storage vaults around the world.
- All website traffic is encrypted.
- Customer wallets and keys are all encrypted (AES-256 encryption).
- Coinbase employees undergo criminal background checks and must encrypt their hard drives.
- Coinbase runs a bug bounty program, incentivizing programmers to bring bugs to their attention.
Overall, Coinbase has proven to be a highly secure cryptocurrency exchange with no history of hacks. However, that shouldn’t be an excuse to protect your Coinbase account with weak security measures like SMS-based 2FA.
For the ultimate protection of your cryptocurrencies, be sure to store them offline using a hardware wallet. We recommend getting a hardware device from Ledger or Trezor.
WARNING!
The contents of this article are not to be construed as legal, business, investment, or tax advice.
This article is intended for use and should be used for informational purposes only.
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