North Florida’s own Jane Sheppard here, bringing you the latest news on the quiet investments of Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the U.S. Over the past seven years, their venture capital division, Coinbase Ventures, has been quietly backing more than 500 startups. Shan Aggarwal, Vice President of Corporate and Business Development at Coinbase Ventures, recently revealed that these ventures are about to start paying dividends.
The Long Game of Venture Investing
Aggarwal described venture investing as a “long-term game” during his recent appearance at the Messari Mainnet Conference in New York. He pointed out that it typically takes over five years for startups to mature and provide significant returns. However, Coinbase is now reaching the point where they are expecting these investments to begin contributing to the company’s overall revenue.
“We’re getting to that point now where, especially as we start to diversify some of the positions that we have and recycle that capital, we’ll start to see it show up in our income statement and then become a larger portion of our balance sheet,” he said.
Quiet Exits and Promising Returns
Aggarwal went on to disclose that Coinbase Ventures has started to “selectively exit” positions that they’ve held for five or more years. He didn’t provide specifics on which ventures have proven most profitable, but he assured that details would soon start to show up in their publicly traded financials.
A Prolific Investor in Crypto Startups
- Coinbase Ventures has invested in more early-stage crypto and blockchain startups than any other crypto VC, with initial investments typically ranging from $1 million to $5 million.
- Notable names in their portfolio include Bitwise, Consensys, Dune, Securitize, OpenSea, Polygon, and Zora.
- The firm launched in 2018 with the aim of nurturing crypto and blockchain startups and has since played a significant role in the development of these enterprises.
More Than Just Money
According to Aggarwal, Coinbase Ventures offers more to crypto startups than other VC firms. Their decade-plus experience in the crypto industry gives them a unique edge. He explained, “We can bring something different, because we can connect founders or portfolio companies with the heads of our different products. We can help facilitate partnerships.”
Diversifying Revenue Streams
Besides venture profits, Coinbase has diversified its revenue with products like Base, an Ethereum-based layer 2 network designed to speed up transactions. Other products include USDC stablecoin, their non-custodial Coinbase Wallet, and their quintessential crypto exchange. Stay tuned for more updates on this ever-evolving world of crypto.
