Coinbase, an American
cryptocurrency exchange, has opted to place strategic investment in
Singapore-headquartered cryptocurrency exchange, Zipmex, instead of full
acquisition, The Block reports.
The investment will be
part of the Series B+ fundraising round the Southeast Asian exchange is
currently working on.
The round, through which
it reportedly has plans to raise $40 million, could value the exchange at $400
million.
Coinbase has previously
discussed full acquisition with Zipmex.
Zipmex, which also has
strong footing in Thailand, previously raised $52 million from its Series B funding
round.
The exchange raised $41
million in September 2021 and $11 million six months later.
Some of its investors in
the rounds included B Capital, V Ventures, MindWorks Capital and Master Ad,
among others.
Recent Coinbase Moves
Coinbase recently committed $1
million for digital public
goods in partnership with Gitcoin, a community of builders, creators and
protocols at the center of open web ecosystems.
Digital public goods are
open-source software that support open-source protocols.
Coinbase said the
monetary support is “one of the largest single donations to the public goods
treasury in Gitcoin history.”
Coinbase last month also launched the Coinbase Institute, a global crypto-native
think tank.
The exchange selected
Hermine Wong as the Director of the Institute. Wong is a former US government
official who worked with the Executive Office of the President’s Office of
Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA).
Meanwhile, a
Bitcoin address recently
transferred 2,457 BTC from Coinbase
as selling pressure pushed the price of the crypto asset to its lowest level in
more than 12 months.
On-chain analytics
platform, Whale Alert, said the BTCs were moved to an unknown
wallet on 20 May at 16:49 UTC.
Whale Alert further disclosed that the coins were worth more than $70 million. The BTC balance on the
cryptocurrency exchange took a major hit as a result.
This article was written by Solomon Oladipupo at www.financemagnates.com.
