Coinbase remains one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. When the firm hinted at a major announcement, people simply expected it to announce the listing of various new currencies. Instead, the company made it clear it would launch a venture fund to invest in early-stage blockchain companies. That’s not the exciting news people were looking for, but it’s not a bad business decision either.
Coinbase’s Venture Fund is Intriguing
It is always good to see more companies focus their attention on investing in blockchain startups. Although there are already numerous ventures active in the blockchain world right now, there’s always room for more competition. It looks like Coinbase wants to get in on the action, as the company has announced an early-stage venture fund.
As the name suggests, this venture fund is designed to invest in blockchain and cryptocurrency firms during the early stages of their development. It will serve as an incubator of sorts, and investing in firms aligned with Coinbase’s values will be a top priority.
According to the company, any profits generated by its venture fund will be “de minimis”. This indicates Coinbase is not looking to turn $1 million into $100 million anytime soon, even though the fund will receive $15 million in starting capital. This is not the final balance, mind you, as the fund will grow in size as time progresses. Later this week and early next week, the fund will commence seed-stage investment, although no further specifics have been announced at this time.
Interestingly, Coinbase will invest in competing service providers if it deems it the best course of action. That in itself is a rather remarkable outlook, although Coinbase acknowledges it is not the best exchange by any means. Even so, funding competitors looking to make an impact in the cryptocurrency industry is something that will undoubtedly raise a lot of questions.
As of right now, it seems Coinbase Ventures is mainly looking for founders, rather than the next lucrative cryptocurrency. To some people, it may sound as if the company is going back on its initial plan to list additional currencies, although that will still happen as planned. One thing that everyone can agree on is that the cryptocurrency ecosystem needs to grow beyond its current scope, and some strategic investments may be required to make that happen.
It will be interesting to see what the future holds for Coinbase and its new venture fund. There are dozens if not hundreds of startups which could use the funding to make a positive impact. At the same time, there are a lot of projects which will never succeed, and Coinbase Ventures will need to avoid these risky companies. A very intriguing future lies ahead for the cryptocurrency space, as many positive things continue to happen.
