Coinbase begins catering to institutions through ‘Coinbase Prime’ platform

Coinbase has today officially launched its ‘Coinbase Prime’ platform to cater to the growing number of institutions purchasing cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.

The Coinbase Prime platform provides features including trading, custody and a set of tools designed to help clients succeed in crypto markets. An array of institutions have worked with Coinbase directly to complete over the counter (OTC) trades and handle custody for assets.

Prime now enables institutions to perform these tasks autonomously, opening the door for a new wave of investors looking to expand their portfolios into cryptocurrencies.

Despite its image as a more retail-friendly exchange, Coinbase’s role in the upwards momentum of crypto markets in 2021 is somewhat unrecognised due to its handling and onboarding of a number of institutions to the crypto industry.

Coinbase has previously catered to institutions like Tesla and MicroStrategy through OTC trades and acting as a custodian for large purchases of digital assets. The American exchange has also helped hedge fund One River and Hong Kong-based Meitu to “execute some of the largest trades in the industry”.

Institutions such as GrayScale have also contributed greatly to the capital inflows to crypto markets. Grayscale currently has $43.7b in assets under management (AUM) and has been a driving force of institutional adoption through the launch of its DeFi Index Fund and several SEC-reporting funds.

The listing of Coinbase stock token COIN on the Nasdaq in April and the anticipation of crypto going mainstream took Bitcoin to recent all-time highs of $64k in May.

The subsequent success of Coinbase brought newfound confidence into crypto markets and led to a substantial amount of capital invested in Bitcoin from an array of leading institutions.

Coinbase has committed to reinvesting $500m into crypto assets and raising $2b in funds through a debt offering to further expand Coinbase. The expansion is part of Coinbase’s ambition to capture a more international audience and introduce more DeFi and custody options for consumers. Coinbase has also established a protocol team to help develop its integration of Layer-2 platforms into its consumer products.