Publicly traded Coinbase (COIN) is buying $500 million in crypto

Publicly traded crypto exchange Coinbase will purchase over $500 million worth of cryptocurrencies as it looks to become a more crypto-centric company, CEO Brian Armstrong revealed in a tweet this morning.

“We recently received board approval to purchase over $500M of crypto on our balance sheet to add to our existing holdings. And we’ll be investing 10% of all profit going forward in crypto,” Armstrong said, adding:

“I expect this percentage to keep growing over time as the crypto economy matures.”

We recently received board approval to purchase over $500M of crypto on our balance sheet to add to our existing holdings. And we'll be investing 10% of all profit going forward in crypto. I expect this percentage to keep growing over time as the cryptoeconomy matures.

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) August 19, 2021

Crypto powerhouse Coinbase

Coinbase is the world’s third-largest crypto exchange by trading volume, as per data from analytics tool CoinGecko. It processed over $4.3 billion worth of trades just yesterday and remains a top choice for institutions and financial giants making inroads into the crypto market.

But despite the nature of its business, Coinbase has historically taken a regulatory-first approach to cryptocurrencies and stayed aloof from altcoins or putting cryptocurrencies on its balance sheet.

Such a sentiment is now, however, shifting. Cryptocurrencies are viewed a bit more favorably by the US government, and global banks are steadily increasing both allocations and investments in the crypto and blockchain sector.

Last year saw electric carmaker Tesla and business analytics firm MicroStrategy pour billions of dollars into Bitcoin, becoming the first major businesses to hold spot Bitcoin as part of their treasuries.

Similar moves were seen in Asia when Hong Kong-listed photosharing app Meitu put both Bitcoin and Ethereum on its balance sheet.

And Coinbase is now joining that league. It, as a recently public company, has a corporate board that approves decisions and sets future strategies, and a crypto allocation has come up as one of the first board moves.

It’s probably not the only crypto-centric move that Coinbase is making either if a follow-up tweet by Armstrong is anything to go by: “Over time we can operate more of our business in crypto – today it is still a mix.” Just bull market things if you ask.

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