Coinbase goes on an acquisition spree to stay ahead and we expect it will soon close the acquisition of a crypto fund provider.

The functionality could sharpen its competitive edge against larger crypto exchanges like Coinbase that already offer it. Finally, while Robinhood hasn’t announced which cryptos it will add next—it currently offers access to seven—adding the right coin at the right time could cause a big trading boost: Dogecoin represented 34% of its crypto transactions in Q2.

Coinbase could be next to acquire a regtech: In August, it set aside a $4 billion cash pile in expectation of higher compliance costs.

In September 2020, Coinbase banned political talk at work, offering severance to employees who were against the new policy. In June, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced an end to full-time remote work. In response, employees circulated results from an internal survey that suggested he was out of step with their values.

Coinbase stands out for actually generating a profit. It reported $2.23 billion in revenues, up from $1.3 billion for all of 2020. It also recorded net income of $1.61 billion, up from $32 million in Q2 2020. Looking ahead: Fintech exit momentum shows no signs of slowing down as more startups seek to emulate their predecessors’ rapid growth.

This year alone, crypto exchange Coinbase, which has 56 million users, went public at a $100 billion valuation while Circle announced a $4.5 billion SPAC listing. And crypto exchange Bullish, which isn’t even live yet, already agreed to a $9 billion SPAC. DeFi also has strong growth projections on its side: The industry grew from $2.39 billion in July 2020 to $63.96 billion at the time of writing.

The big takeaway: By hopping onboard the crypto bandwagon, JPMorgan can discourage outflows of its wealth-management clients who are interested in dabbling in cryptocurrency to fintechs like Robinhood and Coinbase, and keep those clients inside of its ecosystem. The move may also help the bank retain the deposits of Chase retail banking customers who may be pulling them to buy crypto.

Andreessen’s stake in Coinbase was worth $11.2 billion when the exchange went public in April—more than half the amount of capital the VC raised from investors in its 12 years of operation.

Coinbase, for example, already outlines steps the executor or family can take to access the deceased’s cryptos. This process is simpler for users when Coinbase holds the private keys, which lets it directly transfer ownership.

Digital brokers like Coinbase, eToro, Acorns, Bullish, and now Robinhood have seen the writing on the wall and are rushing to go public and capitalize on the trading hype to attract investors.

By contrast, Coinbase, which launched in 2012, disclosed record growth in 2020 and Q1 of this year ahead of its direct listing. In lieu of this, Bullish will need to rely on investors’ bullishness for crypto markets and its parent company’s and Far Peak’s reputations to lure them.

Coinbase also plans to build out its crypto wallet beyond trading so users can interact with metaverse-linked products like DeFi solutions and NFTs. The exchange is starting in pole position: 61.8% of mobile phone users in the US and UK used Coinbase to buy cryptos as of March, compared with just 8% for Gemini.

Coinbase went public this year, and Robinhood plans to as well—like eToro, they can rely on the increased retail investing in both stocks and cryptos to boost user acquisitions this year: Coinbase added more than 10 million users globally in Q1, and Robinhood scored 6 million more crypto traders in the first two months of the year.

Coinbase and Gemini, for example, are two of the most popular platforms for buying cryptos in the US and UK. Coinbase has enjoyed heightened legitimacy since listing on the Nasdaq, and Gemini is one of just five crypto market players registered under the FCA’s AML regime.

And crypto exchanges Coinbase and Gemini are planning to expand their crypto wallets’ compatibility with the DeFi sector in a nod to the metaverse.

Coinbase is supporting the pilot by serving as the custody partner. This suggests Facebook will look to blockchain to power transactions in its metaverse. We’re already seeing the technology being used in emerging metaverses:. Cryptocurrencies in video games. Long before the term “metaverse” became popular, video games were at its forefront.

Last week, it started letting customers use their Curve cards to buy crypto from select platforms, like Coinbase and Kraken. Despite the widening losses, its product expansion may eventually put it in the green. Fees gathered from new services that strike a chord among consumers should boost revenues to the point they could outpace operating costs.

Bank of America and Coinbase joined a $300 million funding round for blockchain infrastructure platform Paxos last month. Goldman Sachs led a $15 million investment in Coin Metrics, which provides crypto financial intelligence to FIs.

And Coinbase enables users to spend cryptos by using a QR code from a Bitcoin payment processor or by sending the payment directly from their account to the merchant’s Coinbase Commerce account. Coinbase Commerce is accepted by more than 8,000 merchants, including Shopify, and it processed $135 million in crypto payments for merchants in 2019.

Further pointing to changes, crypto exchange Coinbase said it will build out its presence in India, anticipating that interest in Bitcoin and a potential CBDC will hold in the country.