San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) has not been resting on its laurels of late, and has announced the acquisition of Earn.com in a $120 million deal on Tuesday.
The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but it appears that those investors who funded Earn.com over the years will be going away with quite a handsome return on their original investment, according to Tech Crunch. In fact, there had already been reports that Coinbase would be paying in excess of $120 million for Earn.com although these rumours were never actually confirmed.
We’re excited to welcome the @earndotcom team and @balajis to Coinbase! https://t.co/9JB8LENVf9
— Coinbase (@coinbase) April 16, 2018
Earn.com, formerly known as 21 Inc., started off as a cryptocurrency mining startup but after limited success, it branched out into a cryptocurrency networking platform where users could accumulate SegWit-Coin BTC (also referred to as Bitcoin legacy or Core) by simply answering emails and completing other spurious tasks. Although that may seem slightly pyramid-like and Ponzi in its origins, those who stuck it out when SegWit-Coin BTC was just a few dollars have undoubtedly struck it rich now with the price hovering at around $8,000.
Earn.com is also developing its own coin on an ERC20 platform, which it is touting instead of SegWit-Coin BTC. This is intriguing as Coinbase has recently announced that it will be adding support to the ERC20 token to its array of products. Still, Earn.com recently announced that it would not be going ahead with the launch of the ERC20 token just yet since it needs to have more time to integrate with Coinbase’s structure—quite a logical decision.
Following the acquisition, Coinbase hired former Earn.com CEO Balaji Srinivasan, who will take up the coveted position of Chief Technology Officer—a major scoop for Coinbase. Srinivasan was previously a partner at Andreessen Horowitz and brings a wealth of experience to the whole operation.
Incidentally, Coinbase has recently announced a deal with Cipher Browser, which it purchased in full. This is a mobile Ethereum wallet which allows users to access applications which are decentralized. Coinbase also launched a new Venture Capital Fund called Coinbase Ventures, which provides startups with up to $15 million in early seed financing. It seems that the U.S. cryptocurrency exchange is pretty busy all in all and is looking bullish for the future.
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