Coinbase Amps Up Its Efforts To Become The Driving Force In Crypto Sector

After acquiring Cipher Browser last week, Coinbase has now made a significant addition to its M&A by buying the Earn.com for a deal of about $120 million. Earn.com is a US startup that is worth over $120 million and utilizes blockchain for its paid email service.

Acquisition binge: Coinbase acquires earn.com for $120 million

One of the biggest cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is certainly on a buying spree what with adding high profile talents to its team and acquiring firms right, left and center. The latest addition is the cryptocurrency startup Earn.com.

After months-long silence on the matter that sparked the rumors of such discussions, it has been finally confirmed that San Francisco-based Coinbase has reportedly acquired Earn.com for a deal over and above $120 million, though the terms of the deal haven’t been made public.

With a valuation of more than $2 billion and funding of over $225 million, Coinbase has been already riding high well above any other private bitcoin company. Earn.com with second most funding at $121 million has a great history that makes it a smart choice from Coinbase’s perspective.

Previously known as 21 Inc., the Earn.com startup was launched as a bitcoin mining operator that was powered by Intel’s technology. Later in 2015, the company launched its bitcoin computer which was backed by the major investors from Silicon Valley to a sum of about $116 million. The startup further evolved into a cryptocurrency networking platform that basically allowed users to earn bitcoin by completing tasks like answering emails.

Also, read: Yahoo Japan To Officially Buy 40% Stake In Japanese Crypto Exchange, BitARG

Coinbase on a hiring spree as well!

Balaji Srinivasan, the CEO of Earn.com who is also a board partner at Andreessen Horowitz will be joining the Coinbase as its CTO. Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase shared the news with a blog post on Medium stating:

“I’m thrilled to announce that Coinbase has acquired Earn.com, and as part of the acquisition, Earn’s co-founder and CEO, Balaji Srinivasan, will join Coinbase as the company’s first Chief Technology Officer (CTO).”

He further shared his plans for Earn:

“We’re going to be doubling down on the Earn business within Coinbase, as they have built a paid email product that is arguably one of the earliest practical blockchain applications to achieve meaningful traction.”

It hasn’t been long that Coinbase started its hiring spree. In December, it started adding big names like former TD Ameritrade COO Asif Hirji as its COO; David Marcus, the Facebook Messenger chief joined the board of Coinbase; the former VP of operations at Twitter, Tina Bhatnagar as its VP of operations, and Rachael Horwitz, who was in communication at Twitter and Facebook as its VP of communications.

This month company hired its M&A head Emilie Choi from LinkedIn. Last week, Coinbase acquired Cipher Browser which is a decentralized ethereum wallet and browser and now Earn.com.

With the acquisitions and top notch hirings, looks like Coinbase is all ready to control and dominate the cryptocurrency sphere.

It won’t be surprising if Coinbase comes up with more acquisitions in the very near future. Do you think, Coinbase would soon become the main driving force in the crypto market?