Coinbase, founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, raised $547M through private rounds and post-IPO placements, with early backing from Y Combinator, Andreessen Horowitz, and Union Square Ventures. The San Francisco–based company provides retail and institutional cryptocurrency services, including exchange, wallets, custody, staking, and merchant tools. Funding supported regulatory compliance, security, platform scalability, and enterprise products like Coinbase Pro and Coinbase Custody. Strategic partnerships and post-IPO financings enabled institutional adoption and product expansion across fiat rails, stablecoins, and developer APIs.
Keep reading to see how Coinbase built leading crypto infrastructure.
What Is Coinbase and What Does It Do?
Coinbase, founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, is a San Francisco–based (United States) cryptocurrency exchange and infrastructure company. Coinbase employs 3,416 people.
The platform provides retail and institutional users with crypto exchange services, custodial wallets, staking, fiat/crypto rails, merchant payment tools, and APIs. Coinbase focuses on security, regulatory compliance, and enterprise-grade service delivery while making crypto accessible to retail users. Its offerings include Coinbase Pro, Coinbase Prime custody, USD stablecoins, and developer tooling for integrating crypto payments and blockchain services.
How Much Funding Has Coinbase Raised?
1. Post IPO (2021)
- Amount Raised: $1.25B (reported post-IPO valuation event)
- Date: May 17, 2021
- Lead Investors: Institutional
- Purpose: Strengthen balance sheet and product growth
Total Funding Raised: $547M
Latest Funding Date: Aug 2021 (post-IPO)
Current Valuation: Public market valuation fluctuates
Key Investors
- Y Combinator
- Details: Premier startup accelerator supporting early founders
- Focus Areas: Seed startups, developer tools, fintech
- Notable Investments: Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe, Coinbase, Docker
- Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)
- Details: Silicon Valley investor in crypto, fintech, and infrastructure
- Focus Areas: Crypto protocols, fintech, developer platforms
- Notable Investments: Coinbase, Coinbase Ventures partnerships, OpenSea, Dapper Labs, Compound
- Union Square Ventures
- Details: Early-stage investor focused on networked markets
- Focus Areas: Crypto, marketplaces, developer tools
- Notable Investments: Twitter, Etsy, Coinbase, Chainalysis, Carta
- TrueBridge
- Details: Early-stage and VC fund investor in fintech
- Focus Areas: Fintech, consumer financial platforms
- Notable Investments: Coinbase, Robinhood (via funds), other fintech startups
- Flying Cow Ventures
- Details: Early/seed investor in disruptive tech
- Focus Areas: Marketplaces, fintech, consumer internet
- Notable Investments: Coinbase (selected portfolio bets)
Where Is Coinbase’s Headquarters?
Coinbase is headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States, near major fintech and crypto developer communities.
What’s Next for Coinbase?
Coinbase plans to expand custody and staking offerings, grow institutional services, enhance regulatory engagement, develop its developer platform, and explore new tokenized asset and DeFi products.
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