Tl;dr: Coinbase is funding a lawsuit brought by six people challenging the US Treasury Department’s sanctions of the Tornado Cash smart contracts and asking the Court to remove them from the U.S. sanctions list. The lawsuit explains that OFAC exceeded its authority from Congress and the President in sanctioning open source technology, rather than sanctioning...Read More
Tl;dr: Coinbase is funding a lawsuit brought by six people challenging the U.S. Treasury Department’s sanctions of the Tornado Cash smart contracts and asking the Court to remove them from the U.S. sanctions list. The sanctions exceed Treasury’s authority, harm innocent people, remove privacy and security options for crypto users, and stifle innovation. By Brian...Read More
By Dan Kim — Vice President, Ecosystem and Listings Tl;dr: Coinbase reviews thousands of crypto tokens; around 90% never get considered for listing as they do not meet our strict requirements for protection against scams like “pump-and-dumps” and “rug pulls.” Our proprietary threat detection software has identified and blocked over 700 tokens with malicious software...Read More
tl;dr How we protect personal information while complying with existing laws and regulations. Recently, we’ve received questions about why we occasionally review specific accounts and ask for more detailed personal information about the owners of those accounts. In short, we do this to meet our regulatory obligations. Here’s a more detailed explanation: At Coinbase, we...Read More
By Faryar Shirzad, Chief Policy Officer Tl;dr: We’re launching our U.S. crypto policy education initiative today, which includes a voter registration portal, to respond to our community’s strong interest in learning more about where their representatives and candidates for public office stand on issues of importance to the crypto community, and in finding ways to...Read More
Coinbase is pleased to share the addition of PayPal to the Travel Rule Universal Solution Technology (TRUST) network. TRUST is a global, industry-driven solution designed to increase compliance with a requirement known as the Travel Rule while prioritizing the security and privacy of customers. PayPal has been a leader in digital payments for more than...Read More
TL;DR: Coinbase filed a petition asking the SEC to begin rulemaking on digital asset securities. The existing rules for securities just do not work for digital assets. Our petition calls on the SEC to develop a workable regulatory framework for digital asset securities guided by formal procedures and a public notice-and-comment process, rather than through...Read More
Coinbase secures Crypto Asset Service Provider approval in Italy 🇮🇹 Tl;Dr: By meeting the regulatory requirements, Coinbase will continue to offer crypto services in Italy, and has a clear path to bring new products and features to market in the country. By Nana Murugesan, Vice President, International and Business Development As discussed in our recent...Read More
By Brian Armstrong, CEO and Co-founder As companies scale, they usually slow down and become less efficient. It takes more dollars, more people and more time to get anything done. Coordination headwinds increase, vetocracies emerge, risk tolerance fades, and teams become inwardly focused instead of staying focused on their customers. While this trajectory is natural,...Read More
By Brian Armstrong, CEO and Cofounder Earlier today, I shared the following note with all Coinbase employees. Team, Today I am making the difficult decision to reduce the size of our team by about 18%, to ensure we stay healthy during this economic downturn. I want to walk you through why I am making this...Read More
Tl;dr: A quick update about a key priority market from the International team. As we prepare to launch in Brazil, we have hired a Country Director, are building out an engineering team, and have engaged with regulators, financial institutions, and startup founders. By Nana Murugesan,VP Business Development and International & Fabio Plein, Country Director for...Read More
By L.J Brock, Chief People Officer As part of our announcement on Thursday, we made the difficult decision to rescind the offers of a number of candidates who were set to join Coinbase. While it’s necessary to slow our headcount growth in light of the macro environment, we deeply regret the impact this has for...Read More
By L.J Brock, Chief People Officer I shared an update with our employees today that I want to also share publicly here. TL;DR: In response to the current market conditions and ongoing business prioritization efforts, we will extend our hiring pause for both new and backfill roles for the foreseeable future and rescind a number...Read More
By Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer A couple of weeks ago, a newly required SEC disclosure we made in our 10Q created some noise about how Coinbase holds crypto assets and what could happen in the highly unlikely event of the company’s insolvency. This led to some genuine concern among people who hold crypto assets...Read More
By Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer Tl;dr: At Coinbase, we take our responsibility to build a more open, accessible financial system very seriously. We’re deeply committed to our asset listing policies and processes, and we’ll continue to innovate as our dynamic space evolves. A few weeks ago, we shared concerns about purchases of certain assets...Read More
By: Hermine Wong, Director of the Coinbase Institute Tl;dr: Today signals the launch of the Coinbase Institute, a global crypto-native think tank. Our mission is to accelerate rigorous, novel research, and to bring together the best minds across disciplines to fuel progress on decentralization, web3, and the future of finance. Today, we’re launching the Coinbase...Read More
By Emilie Choi, President and Chief Operating Officer I shared an update with our employees today that I want to also share publicly. Please note that these changes are not expected to have any material impact to our previously communicated expense outlook for Q2, or full-year 2022, as disclosed in our Q1 shareholder letter. Tl;dr:...Read More
Tl;dr: This shelf registration positions Coinbase to prospectively access the capital markets quickly and efficiently when needed or when market conditions are optimal. Today we filed a shelf registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). This shelf registration statement is intended to be used for potential prospective offerings which may include the...Read More
By L.J Brock, Chief People Officer Overnight I saw the note from Brian Chesky announcing to Airbnb employees that they would be moving to a permanent remote-working model. I applaud Brian and his team. While it may sound simple in a post-pandemic era, the logistics can be anything but. I am ecstatic to see them...Read More
By Brian Armstrong, CEO and Cofounder Tl;dr: We review assets as thoroughly and quickly as possible, and list everything that we can safely and legally. But there is always more we can do to improve our asset listing process. Recently, members of the crypto community have told us that they don’t always understand why Coinbase...Read More
By Darin Carter and Trent Fuenmayor, Coinbase Giving Tl;dr: We continue to invest in high impact projects that advance economic freedom around the world. We’ve pledged $10M in Q1 and supported more than 20,000 people. More to do. Coinbase Giving is the embodiment of our commitment to Pledge 1% of profits, equity, and employee time...Read More
By Prakash Hariramani, Senior Director, Product Management, and Bipul Sinha, Senior Product Manager Today, we are introducing Coinbase Pay, the easiest way for Coinbase users to fund their Coinbase Wallet from the Chrome browser extension and explore web3. Over the past year, DeFi, NFTs, and other web3 services have seen tremendous adoption. However, a key...Read More
By Nana Murugesan, VP, International and Business Development Coinbase will adopt a go broad and go deep approach to scale globally in order to further its mission of bringing more economic freedom to each and every individual and business around the world. Leadership roles are now open across the globe to build our international presence....Read More
By Brian Armstrong In the last few years, it’s become increasingly common for tech companies to censor customers or close their accounts for a range of reasons (e.g., misinformation). Luckily, as a crypto business we don’t face this issue as frequently as a social network does, but we still need to set clear policies around...Read More
By Brian Armstrong, CEO and Co-Founder Commerce pioneer and respected open-source programmer, Lütke will bring his global experience and perspective to bear as Coinbase seeks to expand its international footprint and build new products I’m excited to share that Tobias “Tobi” Lütke, CEO and founder of Shopify, will join Coinbase’s Board of Directors*. Tobi brings...Read More
What we’ve already done to align ourselves with our customers, and what we’re doing next. By Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer Coinbase is committed to providing a fair, transparent and equal experience across our suite of trading products. We take a number of steps to ensure this, including: We do not coordinate asset listing decisions...Read More
