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Coinbase

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by StephanKrot (talk | contribs) at 14:32, 20 February 2018 (Added info about fundraising at august, reports about $1b revenue, and news about erroneously overcharged problem.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Coinbase, Inc.
Type of businessPrivate
FoundedJuly 2, 2011; 13 years ago (2011-07-02)[1]
HeadquartersSan Francisco, California, U.S.
Area served32 countries [2][non-primary source needed]
Founder(s)Brian Armstrong
Fred Ehrsam
ProductsBitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin, exchange of digital assets
Employees51–200[3]
URLwww.coinbase.com
Users13,300,000 (November 2017)[4]
[5][6][7]

Coinbase is a digital currency exchange headquartered in San Francisco, California. They broker exchanges of Bitcoin (₿), Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum (Ξ), Litecoin (Ł) and other digital assets with fiat currencies in around 32 countries,[9] and bitcoin transactions and storage in 190 countries worldwide.[10][11][12][13]

History

Coinbase was founded in July 2011 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam.[6][14] It enrolled in the Summer 2012 Y Combinator startup incubator program. In October 2012, the company launched the services to buy and sell bitcoin through bank transfers.[15] In May 2013, the company received a US$5 million Series A investment led by Fred Wilson from the venture capital firm Union Square Ventures.[16] In December 2013, the company received a US$25 million investment, from the venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures (USV) and Ribbit Capital.[17]

In 2014, the company grew to one million users, acquired the blockchain explorer service Blockr and the web bookmarking company Kippt, secured insurance covering the value of bitcoin stored on their servers, and launched the vault system for secure bitcoin storage.[18][19][20] Throughout 2014, the company also formed partnerships with Overstock, Dell, Expedia, Dish Network, Time Inc. to power accepting bitcoin payments.[21][22][23][24][25] The company also added bitcoin payment processing capabilities to the traditional payment companies Stripe, Braintree, and PayPal.[26]

In January 2015, the company received a US$75 million investment, led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, the New York Stock Exchange, USAA, and several banks, "apparently the first time any traditional financial institutions have taken direct stakes in a bitcoin enterprise".[27] Later in January, the company launched a U.S.-based bitcoin exchange for professional traders called Coinbase Exchange.[28] In May 2015 there was controversy around reports on Reddit that Coinbase had asked a user to describe how they were spending their bitcoin; the Daily Dot reported on the matter, and received a statement from CoinDesk stating: "We don’t comment on specific cases, however, Coinbase is required to monitor activity on its platform in accordance with the Bank Secrecy Act and other regulation governing all money services business (MSB).”; the Daily Dot noted that CoinDesk is obligated to comply with the Bank Secrecy Act, which prevents money laundering, in order to operate as an exchange.[29] Coinbase began to offer services in Canada in 2015, but in July 2016, Coinbase announced it would halt services in August after the closure of their Canadian online payments service provider Vogogo.[30]

On 29 March 2016, Coinbase was listed by UK-based company Richtopia at number 2 in the list of The 100 Most Influential Blockchain Organisations.[31][32] In May 2016, the company rebranded the Coinbase Exchange, changing the name to Global Digital Asset Exchange (GDAX)[33] and offering Ether, the value token of Ethereum, for trade on its professional trading exchange service.[34] In July 2016, they extended the support to their "Coinbase" retail exchange by adding Ether as only the second digital currency offered to retail customers.[35] On January 17, 2017, Coinbase obtained the BitLicense from the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS), which authorizes the company continuing virtual currency business operations in New York.[36] On March 2017, Coinbase received from the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) the approval to offer trading of Ethereum and Litecoin currencies in New York.[37]

On August 10,2017, Coinbase has announced it has raised $100 mln in Series D funding.[38]

On October 12, 2017, Coinbase announced instant bitcoin, ethereum and litecoin purchases for users using a U.S. bank account. Previously, users purchasing through a bank account had to wait several days before receiving digital funds.[39] On November 29, 2017, Coinbase was "ordered to report 14,355 users to the IRS... all users who have bought, sold, sent, or received more than $20,000 through their accounts in a single year".[40] On December 09, 2017 the Coinbase app became the most downloaded app in the Apple App Store (iOS). [41] On December 20, 2017, Coinbase launched Bitcoin Cash support, and just hours after opening order books stopped trading the virtual currency,[42] noted that it started investigating possible insider trading associated with Bitcoin Cash's launch.[43] In January 2018, Coinbase hired Tina Bhatnagar, the former former vice president of operations and user services of Twitter, as the Vice President of of operations and technology.[44]

On January 22, 2017, Recode reports that Coinbase made $1 billion in revenue in 2017, citing “industry sources”.[45]

On Febtuary 16, 2018, Coinbase has admitted that some customers were erroneously overcharged for credit and debit purchases of crypto. the problem was initiated when banks and card issuers changed the merchant category code (MCC) for crypto purchases earlier this month. This meant that crypto payments would now be processed as “cash advances,” meaning that banks and credit card issuers could begin charging customers “cash advance” fees for crypto purchases. Any customers who purchased crypto on their exchange between Jan. 22 and Feb. 11 could have been affected.[46] Visa had at first shifted the blame to Coinbase, telling the Financial Times on Feb. 16 that it had “not made any systems changes that would result in the duplicate transactions cardholders are reporting.” However, the latest statement from Visa and Worldpay on the Coinbase blog clarifies: "This issue was not caused by Coinbase.”[47]

Products

Coinbase has two core products: a Global Digital Asset Exchange (GDAX) for trading a variety of digital assets on its professional asset trading platform, and a user-facing retail broker of Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether, and Litecoin for fiat currency.[35] It also offers an API for developers and merchants to build applications and accept payments in both digital currencies. As of 2018, the company offered buy/sell trading functionality in 32 countries[48], while the cryptocurrency wallet was available in 190 countries worldwide.[49]

See also

References

  1. ^ "CoinBase.com WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info - DomainTools". whois.domaintools.com.
  2. ^ "Global Coinbase". Global Coinbase. Retrieved May 5, 2017.
  3. ^ "Coinbase". LinkedIn. Retrieved May 28, 2017.
  4. ^ Cheng, Evelyn (November 27, 2017). "Bitcoin exchange Coinbase has more users than stock brokerage Schwab".
  5. ^ "About Coinbase". Coinbase. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
  6. ^ a b "Company Overview of Coinbase, Inc". Bloomberg News. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  7. ^ "Coinbase". LinkedIn. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  8. ^ "Coinbase.com Site Overview". Alexa Internet. Retrieved February 11, 2018.
  9. ^ "Ripple rises as it now will be listed on Coinbase". www.digitaljournal.com. Retrieved February 20, 2018.
  10. ^ "Coinbase - Your Hosted Bitcoin Wallet". Coinbase. Retrieved November 30, 2015.
  11. ^ Fowler, Geoffrey A. (February 18, 2014). "Bitcoin experiment in everyday life". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved February 25, 2014.
  12. ^ Fung, Brian. "Expedia wants you to book your next hotel stay with Bitcoin". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  13. ^ Ember, Sydney (September 10, 2014). "Coinbase Extends Bitcoin Access to International Customers". The New York Times. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
  14. ^ "Dish Network Says It Will Accept Bitcoin". The New York Times. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  15. ^ Ludwig, Sean (February 8, 2013). "Y Combinator-backed Coinbase now selling over $1M Bitcoins per month".
  16. ^ Sarah E. Needleman (May 7, 2013). "Coinbase Nabs $5M in Biggest Funding for Bitcoin Startup". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 10, 2014.
  17. ^ Alex Williams (December 12, 2013). "Coinbase Raises $25M Led By Andreessen Horowitz To Build Its Bitcoin Wallet And Merchant Services". TechCrunch. Retrieved December 13, 2013.
  18. ^ Cutler, Kim-Mai (May 6, 2014). "Coinbase Acquires YC-Backed Kippt To Beef Up Its Product, Design Talent".
  19. ^ Cutler, Kim-Mai (August 18, 2014). "Coinbase Acquires Blockchain Explorer Blockr.io".
  20. ^ Knight, Shawn (September 1, 2014). "Coinbase has been insuring Bitcoin deposits for nearly a year".
  21. ^ Burns, Matt (December 21, 2013). "Overstock.com partners with Coinbase and starts accepting bitcoins as payment". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
  22. ^ Kharif, Olga. "Expedia to Accept Bitcoins for Online Hotel Bookings". Bloomberg. Retrieved September 28, 2014.
  23. ^ "Expedia.com Now Accepts Bitcoin to Give Travelers More Choice and Flexibility in Hotel Payments". Bloomberg. June 11, 2014. Retrieved September 28, 2014.
  24. ^ Rizzo, Pete. "Time Inc Becomes First Major Magazine Publisher to Accept Bitcoin". Coindesk. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  25. ^ Wilhelm, Alex (July 18, 2014). "Dell Now Accepts Bitcoin For All Online U.S. Purchases". TechCrunch. Retrieved July 24, 2014.
  26. ^ Del Rey, Jason (March 27, 2014). "Stripe Merchants Will Soon Be Able to Accept Bitcoin Payments".
  27. ^ Vigna, Paul; Casey, Michael (January 20, 2015). "Coinbase raises 75 million in funding round". Wall Street Journal.
  28. ^ Bensinger, Greg (January 25, 2015). "First U.S. Bitcoin Exchange Set to Open". Wall Street Journal.
  29. ^ Cox, Joseph (May 5, 2015). "Coinbase accused to spying on a Dark Net researcher". The Daily Dot.
  30. ^ "Coinbase to Shutdown CAD Services to Canadian Customers - CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News". cryptocoinsnews.com. July 8, 2016. Retrieved July 23, 2016.
  31. ^ "Top 100 Blockchain Organisations: From CoinDesk to BitPay, These Are the Most Influential Organisations in the Distributed Ledger Space". Richtopia. Retrieved May 21, 2016.
  32. ^ "Blockchain Organisations Top 100". Blockchain Age. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
  33. ^ "GDAX - Trusted Digital Asset Exchange". Retrieved June 7, 2017.
  34. ^ Shin, Laura (May 20, 2016). "Digital Currencies Show Potential To Be New Asset Class As Demand For Bitcoin Rival Ethereum Rises". forbes.com. Retrieved July 23, 2016.
  35. ^ a b Tepper, Fitz (July 21, 2016). "Coinbase is adding support for Ethereum". techcrunch.com. Retrieved July 23, 2016.
  36. ^ Suarez, Juan (January 17, 2017). "Coinbase obtains the Bitlicense". Retrieved June 10, 2017.
  37. ^ "DFS authorizes Coinbase, Inc. to provide additional virtual currency products and services". March 22, 2017.
  38. ^ "Coinbase Raises $100 Mln to Expand Staff as Bitcoin Has Netscape Moment". Cointelegraph. August 11, 2017.
  39. ^ "COINBASE ANNOUNCES INSTANT BITCOIN, ETHEREUM AND LITECOIN PURCHASES". October 12, 2017.
  40. ^ "Coinbase ordered to report 14,355 users to the IRS". The Verge. Retrieved November 29, 2017.
  41. ^ "Coinbase hits top spot on Apple's US App Store despite struggling to handle bitcoin demand". TechCrunch. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
  42. ^ "False Start: Coinbase's GDAX Halts BCH Trading Hours After Starting". Cointelegraph. December 20, 2017.
  43. ^ "Coinbase is investigating claims of insider trading from its Bitcoin Cash launch". TechCrunch. Retrieved December 22, 2017.
  44. ^ Cheng, Evelyn (January 22, 2018). "Coinbase, leading US digital currency marketplace, hires Twitter exec who oversaw user services". CNBC. Retrieved February 20, 2018.
  45. ^ "Bitcoin broker Coinbase booked $1 billion in revenue last year — so the company has told hovering VCs to back off". Recode. January 22, 2018.
  46. ^ "Accidental Charges Lead To Coinbase Users Losing Thousands Of Dollars, Refunds Promised". Cointelegraph. February 16, 2018.
  47. ^ "Visa, Worldpay Take Blame For Duplicate Charges On Coinbase, Reverse Transactions". Cointelegraph. February 16, 2018.
  48. ^ "Insurers are getting in on the crypto game with bitcoin heist cover". Business Insider. Retrieved February 20, 2018.
  49. ^ Reisinger, Don (September 11, 2014). "Bitcoin platform Coinbase expands to 13 European countries".
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