Popular Coinbase has for an undisclosed amount. The announcement of the acquisition was made official on April 13, 2018.
The company in question, Cipher, had once competed with Coinbase-developed Toshi browser. This acquisition is the first instance in which Coinbase has shelled cash to buy out a smaller rival company.
Cipher to Merge with Toshi
Coinbase, a company that made a profit of $1 billion from the cryptocurrency exchange business, already had its own app browser, Toshi. Cipher shares a similar business model as both let users to store Ethereum-based digital tokens on their wallet and browse a storefront of decentralized apps running on the Ethereum .
Cipher founder Pete Kim will a new role as the head of engineering at Toshi and work closely with Toshi’s existing development team. Cipher and Kim will be merged under the umbrella over time.
Existing Cipher features will also be merged into Toshi according to an announcement on , “Exciting news! Cipher Browser is joining Coinbase! Pete Kim will become head of engineering for Toshi and we’ll be merging many features of Cipher into Toshi.” Cipher also reiterated its commitment to building the best Web 3 experience on mobile.
A new feature coming soon to Toshi is support for testnets where developers can test a prototype version of their DApps before releasing it to the masses.
Coinbase’s New Acquisition Strategy
Coinbase recently Emilie Choi as its first-ever head of Mergers and Acquisitions and was immediately tasked with expanding the headcount at the company. One of the favored strategies in the startup world to hire talented and exceptional employees working at smaller, rival firms has been to buy out the target company and then integrate the staff.
Coinbase raised $100 million from investors in its last round of funding which when combined with its annual profit of over $1 billion, leaves no doubt that Emilie was inducted to lead an aggressive acquisition charge.
The Ambition: To be Crypto’s Google
Dan Romero, VP and General Manager of the six-year-old startup, had , “I think our view is that this (cryptocurrency) is similar to the beginning of the internet. So we’re trying to build a Google-like company for the cryptocurrency space.”
Coinbase has lots to do in its quest to be a Google-esque technology giant. Although there are no plans for Coinbase to go public as of now, the chances are that the company may do it at some point in time.
Other Coinbase Acquisitions
In January 2018, Coinbase also acquired the developers that built Memo.Ai that built tools to manage technical teams. Similarly, and Blockr.io were both acquired in 2014. A notable distinction in all these buyouts is that the teams of acquired firms were all immediately absorbed into Coinbase.
Coinbase is also to be close on the heels of Earn.com. The cryptocurrency platform allows users to earn simply by completing tasks and replying to emails, similar to the platform. The deal, if agreed upon, would be more than $120 million worth of cash and stock options.
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Each week BTCManager and JaketheCryptoKing are going to explore a new opportunity. We are in week 12 of this moonshot experiment! Markets just suffered a sharp correction providing the perfect opportunity for some moonshot shopping at discounted prices. The moonshot for the week beginning April 15, 2018, is; .
What is a Moonshot?
A moonshot is an that can provide returns multiple times greater than the leading cryptocurrencies if their deadlines are met and their goals achieved. With over 1,400 cryptocurrencies and many ambitious goals, it is obvious there will be some true “moon” opportunities.
Moonshots can include both smaller and medium cap cryptos. These particular coins exist in the cryptocurrency marketplaces; they solely need to be found. Moonshots are very different than most cryptos as they are meant to be purchased and held. Moonshot principles are vastly different than those implemented by day traders and short-term holders. These unique altcoins are cryptocurrencies whose long-term potential is gleaming.
This week’s Moonshot is Komodo (). With the markets having been dramatically impacted by government regulation of initial coin offerings (“ICOs”) many coins like , Komodo, and took significant losses. KMD is very special as it has a much smaller market cap than most altcoins that launch and they provide a ‘new’ type of ICO.
KMD specializes in decentralized ICOs. Their first dICO takes place in the next week, and the excitement is clearly building. With such a critical week ahead and having suffered enormous losses during the correction, it seems KMD is poised to have a very strong remainder to 2018.
What is Komodo (KMD)?
KMD is at the time of writing, which is over $1 higher than where KMD was trading April 7, 2018. The momentum behind KMD is continuing to build as the date of their first dICO is approaching coupled with their revolutionary privacy technologies. KMD has a market cap of over $383 million which should continue to rise barring any setbacks to the .
KMD differentiates itself because of their Komodo platform. The Komodo blockchain platform uses KMD’s open-source cryptocurrency for doing transparent, anonymous private, and fungible transactions. A Delayed Proof of Work protocol then makes them ultra-secure by using ’s blockchain. The SuperNET ecosystem also uses KMD as their official cryptocurrency. SuperNET is a decentralized organization that develops open-source and decentralized tools for crypto markets. These tools can include anything from decentralized exchanges to multi-coin wallets. Having solidified itself as the official crypto of SuperNET, having major projects on the horizon, and having the launch of their first dICO this week, provides multiple catalysts that should see KMD trading higher.
KMD has many impressive projects they are working on, including a decentralized exchange. They have named this decentralized exchange . The plan is to use to get passed the pegging of assets to enable the exchanging of coins instantly. No longer will traders wonder if their portfolio increased in or not. Atomic swaps will allow for any currency to be traded for any currency and KMD is trying to do it in a decentralized manner.
Decentralized Initial Coin Offerings
The ambitions do not stop there as KMD’s furthest developed platform is their dICO platform. A dICO is a decentralized platform allowing for the token sale of coins using a model powered by atomic swap technologies. This allows for the total decentralized and anonymous issuance and distribution of cryptos using the dICO model. KMD clearly has very advanced privacy technologies they are implementing in the ICO realm and via exchange platforms.
Komodo is an altcoin that specializes in dICO (decentralized initial coin offerings). This is a process that should revolutionize the ICO platforms of the cryptocurrency space. On April 17, 2018, the first ever dICO token sale begins, hosted on the Komodo Platform. The BLOC token will commence and officially be declared the first decentralized ICO of the cryptocurrency space. Komodo proudly is shifting the landscape beginning with the BlocNATION token sale.
If the dICO platform or a decentralized exchange using atomic swaps is the future of crypto KMD will have a very positive 2018. KMD focuses on privacy, exchanges, and dICO platforms making it able to succeed if any of its many projects are successful.
To read the King’s prior articles, to find out which ICOs he currently recommends, or to get in contact directly with the King, you can on Twitter (@JbtheCryptoKing) or (ICO updates and Daily Reports).
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In an interview with CNBC, a senior executive of Ripple said the company’s native XRP token is not a security. The statement comes after widespread speculation regarding the digital token’s listing on Coinbase, which follows strict guidelines and strives to remain legally compliant.
Cryptocurrencies Are Securities, Says SEC
According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (), general security laws apply to cryptocurrencies. The Commission has also gone ahead and issued multiple subpoenas and asked for more clarity and information on transactions related to new digital coins.
But to Ripple’s chief market strategist, Cory Johnson:
“We absolutely are not a security. We don’t meet the standards for what a security is based on the history of court law.”
Currently, the digital assets giant provides only four coins, namely; , , , and , with none of them being generally considered as securities.
Coinbase Denies Ripple Listing
Of the 100 billion XRP tokens ever created, San Francisco-based owns about 60 billion. The company aims at easing the workload for financial institutions via its -powered payment network and offers XRP as an option to its customers for use in transactions.
A feud between the regulators and XRP has never taken place, and Ripple is keen on getting its digital currency listed on Coinbase.
“Coinbase never ever raised the issue of whether or not XRP is a security in our discussions about listing XRP,” Johnson said. However, Coinbase has any listing rumors and emphasized on its transparent Digital Assets listing policy, released on January 4, 2018.
In March 2018, after an announcement that CNBC’s Fast Money episode would feature the CEOs of the two firms, it seems some cryptocurrency enthusiasts assumed that Ripple would be listed on Coinbase. However, it turned out that the conversation between them was not about XRP’s listing. Instead, they spoke about general industry issues.
The token witnessed a price spike after rumors about arrival of XRP on Coinbase. Historically, news of a coin’s addition to Coinbase sparks curiosity and speculation amongst cryptocurrency enthusiasts, as it could potentially attract “new money” from about 13 million investors registered on the exchange. But, prices went down soon after Coinbase denied rumors.
Nevertheless, Cory’s statements may have certainly turned the tide in favor of Ripple again, as the increased 15 percent after the interview, at the time of writing.
Community Argues Ripple Is Security
Despite Ripple’s statement, it can be argued that the company distributes XRP by selling the tokens, with most buyers purchasing them with the intentions of investment and not money transfer. Furthermore, the company loosely defines its tokens, which could lead the SEC to consider them as a “security,” and subject it to the same laws as stocks, bonds, and even .
Without a clear definition, Coinbase keeps its distance from the world’s third-largest cryptoasset by market cap, as it could result in legal troubles for the exchange in case they list securities.
Historically, Coinbase has maintained a legal and fully-compliant approach to its business, providing no chance of a controversy and ensuring it stays in the government’s good books.
Previously, the CEO of Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse, that Ripple has always strived to work with governments:
“It’s incredibly important that the entire industry recognizes that we have to work with the regulators, we have to work with the system… There are some within the bitcoin community that really advocated not just down with banks but down with governments, we have been a contrarian relatively speaking in that regard.”
Ripple Allegedly Tried To Bribe Coinbase
As reported by BTCManager on April 6, Ripple had to bribe Coinbase with “financial incentives,” and even offered to pay the listing amount in cash.
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