Coinbase unveils fund for early-stage cryptocurrency startups
Summary
In a blog post , Coinbase head of corporate and business development Emilie Choi said that the fund’s goal is to strengthen the sector.“This means we don’t have the strategic requirement of formalizing partner relationships with such companies, as some corporate venture programs do.This includes investing in companies that may potentially compete with Coinbase because “it’s in everyone’s interest to see the ecosystem innovate,” Choi added.She also said the fund will keep an eye on founders who have worked for Coinbase and “enthusiastically invest in ideas from our own alumni network.”There’s been “tremendous take up on the fund, well beyond anything we were expecting,” he added and that it “confirmed what we thought, that there is actually more demand on the investor side than on the trader side.” While Coinbase doesn’t have current plans to add more cryptocurrencies to its exchange, investing in promising startups will help it find promising tokens, Hirji said.