Coinbase Acquires One River Digital Asset Management

The crypto exchange is expanding its move beyond the core business of retail trading.

AccessTimeIconMar 3, 2023 at 2:16 p.m. UTC
Updated May 9, 2023 at 4:09 a.m. UTC
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Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase (COIN) said it bought One River Digital Asset Management, an institutional digital-asset manager, as it looks to expand beyond its core business catering to retail customers.

One River Digital, a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission-registered subsidiary of One River Asset Management, will become Coinbase Asset Management and will "form the foundation" of Coinbase's investment advisory service for institutional clients, the exchange said in a blog post Friday. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

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  • Coinbase has been looking to expand beyond its core retail trading business in response to the drop-off in transaction volume in recent months. Institutional investment management forms a part of that strategy, as does its move into the developer sector through its new layer 2 blockchain Base. It released Base's test network last week.

    “This is about wanting to bring more institutional capital into the world of crypto,” Greg Tusar, Coinbase’s head of institutional product, told Bloomberg. “We expect to build – on the other side of this crypto winter – an awesome asset-management business.”

    Some of Coinbase’s institutional products have come under scrutiny from regulators who have been taking a closer look at the crypto industry after the collapse of crypto exchange FTX.

    Coinbase Asset Management, which will operate as an independent unit, will be helmed by CEO and Chief Investment Officer Eric Peters, who is also CEO and CIO of One River Asset Management.

    Coinbase and One River Digital teamed up in February last year to offer One Digital's separately managed accounts to Coinbase Prime users, allowing them to hold the assets themselves while benefitting from the expertise of an external asset manager.

    UPDATE (March 3, 16:12 UTC): Adds comments by Greg Tusar in fourth paragraph, background starting in fifth.

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    Jamie Crawley

    Jamie Crawley is a CoinDesk news reporter based in London.

    Helene Braun

    Helene is a New York-based reporter covering Wall Street, the rise of the spot bitcoin ETFs and crypto exchanges. She is also the co-host of CoinDesk's Markets Daily show. Helene is a graduate of New York University's business and economic reporting program and has appeared on CBS News, YahooFinance and Nasdaq TradeTalks. She holds BTC and ETH.


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