With just days to go to the start of 2019, Coinbase has made available its cryptocurrency exchange platform in Gibraltar, alongside a further five regions – Andorra, Guernsey, Iceland, Isle of Man and Lithuania.
Coinbase is a digital currency wallet and platform where customers can trade the new digital currencies such as bitcoin, ethereum and litecoin. According to the company’s mission statement, it aims to create an open financial system for the world in order to generate greater economic freedom, innovation, efficiency and equality of opportunity.
Having launched in 2012, Coinbase has steadily progressed its mission of creating an open, accessible global financial system, aiming to make it easier for a greater number of people to trade cryptocurrencies. The company has since expanded its operations from US to 33 countries across the world. At the end of October, Coinbase stated it had raised another $300 million in a funding round led by Tiger Global Management. This values the firm at more than $8 billion, and despite the plummeting price of bitcoin, Coinbase expects to earn $1.3 billion in 2018.
With the rollout of Coinbase to these markets in Europe, new customers will be able to make full use of the company platform, including its iOS and Android apps. With a renewed focus on expanding the platform further, Coinbase expects to make Coinbase Pro and Prime available in these regions in the near future.
Of the recent rollout to European regions including Gibraltar, Coinbase UK’s CEO, Zeeshan Feroz has said that users can expect a “more aggressive approach” to the company’s drive for expansion in 2019. He added that the company seeks out markets that are close to jurisdictions where they currently operate as they roll out. Coinbase has recently opened an office in Dublin as part of its Brexit contingency planning in order to continue to have access to European markets post-Brexit.
CEO, Zeeshan Feroz, has also pointed to Coinbase’s constant exploring of ways of working with banks and payment providers to facilitate transactions for customers. In March this year, Coinbase struck a deal with Barclays Bank in UK which marked the first major partnership between a cryptocurrency exchange and a UK bank. Previously, UK customers had to make transactions via an Estonian bank which took some days to process. The partnership with a domestic UK bank makes it much easier for UK customers to top up and withdraw money from Coinbase.
Gibraltar’s increasing appeal as a popular destination for blockchain and crypto start ups based on its registration and regulatory process has proven an attraction to Coinbase. Meanwhile Iceland has become a popular jurisdiction for crypto mining specifically because of its abundance of renewable energy which balances out the electricity-intensive processes required by the underlying blockchain network.
