Coinbase

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Coinbase, Inc.
Coinbase
Founded San Francisco, California, United States (June 20, 2012)
Headquarters San Francisco, California, United States
Area served 33 U.S. States and some countries
Founder(s) Brian Armstrong
Fred Ehrsam
Products Bitcoin Ethereum exchange of digital assets
Website Official website
Users 2,800,000 (Nov 2015)[1]
[2][3][4]

Coinbase—also operating as Global Digital Asset Exchange (GDAX) since May 2016[5]—is a Bitcoin and other digital asset exchange company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It operates exchanges of bitcoin, Ethereum and other digital assets with fiat currencies in 32 countries, and bitcoin transactions and storage in 190 countries worldwide. [6][7][8][9]

History

Coinbase was founded in June 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam.[3][10]. It enrolled in the summer 2012 Y Combinator startup incubator program. In October 2012 the company launched the serrvices to buy and sell bitcoin through bank transfers.[11]

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.[12] In December 2013, the company received a US$25 million investment, from the venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures and Ribbit Capital.[13]

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.[14][15][16] Throughout 2014 the company also formed partnerships with Overstock, Dell, Expedia, Dish Network, Time Inc., and Wikipedia to power accepting bitcoin payments.[17][18][19][20][21] The company also added bitcoin payment processing capabilities to the traditional payment companies Stripe, Braintree, and PayPal.[22]

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."[23] Later in January the company launched a U.S.-based bitcoin exchange.[24]

In May 2016, the company rebranded itself as the Global Digital Asset Exchange (GDAX) and begin to offer Ether, the value token of Ethereum, for trade on its exchange.[5]

Products

Coinbase has two core products: an exchange for trading bitcoin and fiat currency and an API for developers and merchants to build applications and accept bitcoin payments. The company offers buy/sell trading functionality in 25 countries, while the wallet is available in 190 countries worldwide.[25]

The exchange can be funded through a bank transfer or wire, and trades on the exchange have a maker/taker price model in which traders pay either a 0.25% fee (taker) or nothing (maker) to execute trades.[26]

See also

References

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  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2016/05/20/digital-currencies-show-potential-to-be-new-asset-class-as-demand-for-bitcoin-rival-ethereum-rises/
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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