Coinbase is Looking for Investors at a Billion Dollar Valuation
Coinbase, the San Francisco-based virtual currency exchange operating the exchange of bitcoin, ethereum, and litecoin in numerous countries, seeks to raise funds at a valuation of more than $1 billion. According to
According to The Wall Street Journal , citing persons familiar with the situation, the cryptocurrency startup is currently talking out to investors to raise the desired funds.
The WSJ stated reported that the funding round is not set, however, Coinbase seeks to raise approximately $100 million, which would be the biggest amount of funds received by a bitcoin company.
As far, Coinbase has raised about $116.5 million from various investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Venture, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, as well as a number of financial institutes and the New York Stock Exchange, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Currently, as bitcoin passed $2,500 and is currently standing at $2,550, many investors are looking to take advantage of such trends of the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin’s price gained 125 percent in 2016 and further increased 124 percent in 2017. Just in the course of one week, the price of the cryptocurrency went from $1,700 to $2,700 and stabilized at $2,200 later on. In May, it was reported that the value of BTC increased by approximately 60 percent.
It seems like Coinbase is taking advantage of the continuous and persistent uptrend of the cryptocurrency. Yesterday, the company reported that they had reached 6 million users worldwide, a new milestone for the firm. According to the statistics published on Coinbase’s website, the digital currency exchange has over 13 million wallets, serving 45,000 different merchants and 9,000 developer apps. Funded in 2012, the company experienced an exponential growth of users during their five years of activity.
A graph posted on Reddit shows that 2 million of Coinbase’s users are from the last six months. However, in the last year, the main reason for the exponential growth is economical instability. Since on June 24, 2016, the United Kingdom decided to leave the European Union and Donald Trump’s election as the president of the United States, more and more people are investing in bitcoin. Such events decrease the trust of the citizens of the countries in the national currency, which often results in increased investment in cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin.
Coinbase is also known for its ongoing tussle with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In November, last year, the IRS summoned the digital currency exchange to provided details on unnamed and unknown taxpayers. However, despite that a federal judge approved the request of the IRS, Coinbase refused to comply. In May, senior Republicans in the Congress have stepped into the fight, possibly on Coinbase’s side, questioning whether the IRS has a strong foundation for amassing the records of half a million people.
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