Coinbase Is Reportedly Planning To Raise $500 Million At An $8 Billion Valuation

By Annie Baker ● Oct 4, 2018

Coinbase, a platform for buying, selling, storing, and transferring digital currency, is reportedly planning to raise a round of funding that would value the company at $8 billion. And Coinbase is currently in talks with Tiger Global and other existing investors for a $500 million round of funding, according to Recode.

This would make Coinbase one of the most valuable startups in the US and further validate the legitimacy of the cryptocurrency industry. Coinbase generates revenue from each trade.

Recode’s sources said that of the $500 million, Coinbase is reportedly planning to buy out existing investors for $250 million and use the other $250 million to further grow the company. As of last summer, Coinbase was valued at about $1.5 billion. However, the cryptocurrency saw a rapid decline in prices after it peaked around December 2017.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said that the company is not focused on the fluctuations in trading volume. Instead, Coinbase is more focused on building an “open financial system for the world.”

Currently, Coinbase is profitable and it has been talking to investors about a second stock sale throughout this year. Apparently, the inbound interest was so high that Coinbase decided to issue a warning to dealmakers to stay clear from the company and shareholders. But that secondary sale moved slowly and a final deal was not reached. As the company continues to raise late-stage funding, Coinbase may eventually go public.

Coinbase also just announced that Chris Dodds of Charles Schwab has joined its board of directors. “His addition to the Coinbase board is part of our effort to expand our financial services capabilities as we head into this next chapter for the company and the cryptocurrency industry as a whole,” said the company in a blog post.