Coinbase
Nasdaq: COINalso invests Β· investor profileYC S12YC Top CompanySan Francisco, US Β· Founded 2012 Β· 6,112 employees Β· Public Β· 64 known investors
Coinbase is a cryptocurrency exchange platform that offers trading, custody, and financial services for cryptocurrencies, stocks, derivatives, and prediction markets to consumers, institutions, and developers. The company operates a full-stack infrastructure including secure custody, liquidity services, stablecoin infrastructure, and global settlement rails.
Founders & leadershipΒ· Y Combinator alumni (S12)
Coinbase was founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam.
Board
Investors Β· 64
Also in the syndicate Β· 3
Valuation Β· disclosed
Disclosed eventsSource: SEC prospectus filings, and round valuations the company or its investors disclosed β follow each entry's link for the claim.
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Coinbase was founded in June 2012 by Brian Armstrong, a former Airbnb software engineer, after he was accepted into Y Combinator's Summer 2012 batch with $150,000 in seed funding. Fred Ehrsam, a former Goldman Sachs foreign-exchange trader who had begun trading bitcoin independently, joined shortly after as co-founder and the company's first president. The company launched its consumer bitcoin buy/sell service via bank transfer in October 2012, taking its name from the 'coinbase transaction' that introduces new bitcoin into the network via mining. Coinbase raised early venture capital in stages: a Series A ($5M, May 2013, led by Union Square Ventures/Fred Wilson), Series B ($25M, December 2013, led by Andreessen Horowitz with USV and Ribbit Capital), Series C ($75M, January 2015, led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson with participation from the NYSE, USAA, and several banks), Series D (~$100M, August 2017, with Greylock Partners among the investors via partner Josh McFarland), and Series E (~$300M, October 2018, led by Tiger Global Management at roughly an $8B valuation). Total private funding raised prior to going public is commonly cited at roughly $547 million.
Through the mid-2010s Coinbase built out regulatory infrastructure ahead of most crypto peers, obtaining a New York BitLicense in January 2017 and gradually adding assets beyond bitcoin (Ethereum and Litecoin in 2017). It expanded into institutional services with Coinbase Custody and Coinbase Prime, launched the USDC stablecoin in 2018 (via the Centre consortium with Circle), and made a string of small acquisitions (Blockr and Kippt in 2014, the controversial Neutrino blockchain-intelligence acquisition in 2019, Tagomi in 2020, and Agara in 2021) to build out trading, compliance, and support capabilities. Fred Ehrsam stepped back from day-to-day operations in January 2017 (remaining on the board) and went on to co-found crypto venture firm Paradigm in 2018.
Coinbase went public via a direct listing on Nasdaq on April 14, 2021 under the ticker COIN β a landmark event as the first major crypto exchange to list on a U.S. public market. Nasdaq set a reference price of $250/share (implying roughly a $47B valuation), and the stock closed its first day of trading at $328.28/share. The listing cemented Coinbase's position as crypto's most visible public bellwether, with its stock price closely tracking bitcoin and broader crypto-market sentiment.
Business model
Crypto exchange and financial-services platform monetizing via retail and institutional trading fees, subscription/services revenue (Coinbase One, staking, custody), stablecoin (USDC) interest income sharing, and, since 2025-2026, expanded derivatives, prediction-market, and payments products.
Transaction fees on trading, subscription and services revenue (Coinbase One membership, custody, staking commissions), interest income from USDC reserves, and blockchain infrastructure/other revenue.
βΈFull profile β profile (continued), go-to-market, ownership
Profile (continued)
As a public company Coinbase weathered a difficult regulatory period, including an SEC Wells notice (March 2023) and subsequent SEC lawsuit (June 2023) alleging it operated as an unregistered securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency β a suit the SEC ultimately dismissed in February 2025 amid a friendlier U.S. regulatory posture toward crypto. Coinbase also paid a $50M penalty to the New York DFS in 2023 over anti-money-laundering compliance failures, and conducted two rounds of layoffs (roughly 18% of staff in June 2022 and ~950 more in January 2023) during the 2022 crypto downturn. The company became remote-first in 2020, dispersing its historical San Francisco headquarters model, though it maintains significant SF office space and opened a 'Center of Excellence' in Charlotte, North Carolina.
In 2025-2026 Coinbase pursued an aggressive 'everything exchange' strategy, expanding well beyond spot crypto trading into derivatives, tokenized equities, prediction markets, and payments. Its largest acquisition to date, announced May 8, 2025, was Deribit, the world's leading crypto options exchange (Dubai-based), for roughly $2.9 billion ($700M cash plus $2.2B in Coinbase stock) β at the time the largest M&A deal in crypto history. In December 2025 Coinbase also agreed to acquire The Clearing Company, a prediction-markets infrastructure firm. Coinbase became the first crypto-native company added to the S&P 500 index in May 2025. Regulatory milestones continued into 2026, including conditional OCC approval to charter Coinbase National Trust Company (April 2026), an Australian AFSL license, and a tokenization hub established in Abu Dhabi. Coinbase also experienced a data breach in May 2025 affecting under 1% of users, in which it refused to pay a $20M extortion demand and instead offered a $20M bounty for information on the attackers. As of mid-2026 Coinbase reported roughly $6-7B in annual revenue, over 100 million verified users, and remains the largest U.S. crypto exchange, though its stock has traded well off its highs amid a broader crypto-market pullback.
Go-to-market
Retail cryptocurrency investors/traders, institutional investors and asset managers, and developers building on crypto rails (via Coinbase Wallet, Base, and Coinbase Developer Platform).
Ownership
public
Compiled by commissioned research from 14 cited public sources β announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed β not independently audited.
Founder mafia
The Coinbase mafia β59 people who came through Coinbase went on to found or lead other companies.
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+ 47 more
Competitors Β· 6
by search overlap
Companies competing with Coinbase for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.
Acquisitions Β· 4
Early investors' stakes continue via these dealsBlockspring provides a platform for small businesses to connect APIs to spreadsheets and productivity applications without requiring coding, enabling automated data collection, reporting, and lead management.
Mobile-first crypto wallet; acquired by Coinbase in November 2021.
Earn.com let users earn cryptocurrency by replying to emails and completing microtasks from verified senders. The company began as 21 Inc, a Bitcoin mining and hardware startup known for the 21 Bitcoin Computer, and relaunched as Earn.com in 2017 under CEO Balaji Srinivasan. Coinbase acquired the company in April 2018, and Srinivasan became Coinbase's first chief technology officer.
Coinbase Prime is a prime brokerage platform for institutional crypto that combines execution, financing, custody, futures, and staking in one system. It serves institutional investors, banks, brokers, fintechs, and payment firms, offering regulated custody, algorithmic execution across spot and derivatives, and crypto-as-a-service infrastructure.
Timeline Β· 19
launches, deals, and filingsCoinbase receives conditional approval from the OCC to charter Coinbase National Trust Company.
Coinbase agrees to acquire The Clearing Company, a prediction-markets infrastructure firm, to power onchain prediction markets under its 'Everything Exchange' strategy.
Coinbase becomes the first crypto-native company added to the S&P 500 index.
Coinbase announces acquisition of Deribit, the world's leading crypto options exchange (Dubai-based), for approximately $2.9B ($700M cash + $2.2B in Coinbase stock) -- the largest M&A deal in crypto history at the time.
Coinbase discloses a data breach affecting under 1% of users; refuses a $20M extortion demand and instead offers a $20M bounty for information on the attackers.
SEC sues Coinbase alleging it operated as an unregistered securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency.
Coinbase cuts approximately 18% of staff (~1,100 employees) amid the 2022 crypto downturn.
Coinbase goes public via direct listing (ticker COIN) at a $250/share Nasdaq reference price (~$47B valuation), closing its first day at $328.28/share.
Coinbase raises approximately $300M led by Tiger Global at roughly an $8B valuation.
Coinbase and Circle launch the USDC stablecoin via the Centre consortium.
Coinbase raises approximately $100M in a Series D round with Greylock Partners (partner Josh McFarland) among the investors.
Coinbase launches its bitcoin buy/sell service via bank transfer.
Brian Armstrong founds Coinbase after joining Y Combinator's Summer 2012 batch with $150K seed funding; Fred Ehrsam joins shortly after as co-founder.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
Coinbase Stock And 2 Financials In Focus As Prediction Market Rules Tighten - Simply Wall St Newssimplywall.st Β· Jul 2026
The VC betting $5.4 billion that Suno is the future of music | Fortunefortune.com Β· Jul 2026
Exclusive: Cyclops raises $20 million to help payment companies settle faster with stablecoins | Fortunefortune.com Β· Jul 2026
Coinbase Ventures leads 2026 crypto funding | Grafagrafa.com Β· Jul 2026βΈResearch sources Β· 14
primary sources listed
- About CoinbaseCoinbase Β· official site
- Coinbase - Greylock PortfolioGreylock Partners Β· official site
- Coinbase BlogCoinbase Β· official site
14 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Coinbase do?
- Building the everything exchange
- Who founded Coinbase?
- Coinbase was founded by Brian Armstrong, Fred Ehrsam in 2012.
- Who are Coinbase's investors?
- Coinbase's investors include 1confirmation, A.Capital Ventures, a16z crypto, Acrew Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Ansa Capital, ARK Investment Management, Battery Ventures and 53 more.
- Is Coinbase publicly traded?
- Yes β Coinbase trades on Nasdaq under the ticker COIN.
- Where is Coinbase headquartered?
- Coinbase is headquartered in San Francisco, US.