In a recent blog post, the digital assets exchange Coinbase announced that they are now with a valuation of over $8 billion after closing a Series E funding round of $300 million. The company intends to leverage these investments to “accelerate the adoption of cryptocurrencies and digital assets”.

The completion of this round takes the total invested amount in Coinbase to $525 million. In the publication, Asiff Hirji, President and COO of Coinbase, revealed that the Series E round was led by Tiger Global Management, with participation from Y Combinator Continuity, Wellington Management, and Andreessen Horowitz, among others.

Coinbase to support thousands of new coins in the future

According to the company’s COO, the company sees “hundreds of cryptocurrencies that could be added to our[Coinbase] platform today”. To make it easier to list new digital assets in the future, the firm will be laying down the groundwork to support thousands of them in the future.

In July this year, Coinbase announced in another blog post that they are exploring several different cryptocurrencies — Cardano, Basic Attention Token, Stellar Lumens, Zcash, and 0x. More recently, on the 25th of September, they announced a new asset listing process that would make it possible for any project to apply.

Embracing global expansion

In September this year, the company announced in a publication that UK citizens would be able to purchase cryptocurrency with GBP on Coinbase, Coinbase Pro and Coinbase Prime. It is unsurprising that they will be building the infrastructure to support multiple currencies soon.

Bringin institutional funds to the market

By adding more features and assets to their Custody offerings, Coinbase believes to be able to bring more institutions to the cryptocurrency market. On October 23, 2018, Coinbase Custody obtained a license under the New York State Banking Law to operate as an independent Qualified Custodian. The firm provides enterprise-grade security for large digital assets storage.

‘Utility applications’ for cryptocurrencies

In October, Coinbase and Circle announced the launch of a new stablecoin — the USDC. One USDC represents 1 US$ on the Ethereum blockchain. US citizens can buy and sell USDC on Coinbase, while others around the world can only send and receive. The company plans to expand to more geographies soon.

Remember folks, Crypto is coming!

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