In an attempt to attract more institutional traders, major crypto exchange Coinbase agreed to acquire another major player in the crypto industry, Tagomi, a New York-based crypto brokerage. (Updated on May 28: updates in bold).
Terms of the acquisition, that is pending regulatory approval, weren’t disclosed. Tagomi was launched 18 months ago and was backed by Peter Thiel, Co-founder of PayPal. NXC, the South Korean operator of the Bitstamp and Korbit crypto exchanges, also invested in the brokerage.
“A person close to the deal” told Fortune that Coinbase paid entirely with its privately held stock. Also, a source familiar with Tagomi said the price was close to USD 100 million and added that Coinbase outbid rival crypto giant Binance to land the deal, according to the report.
“The acquisition will bolster our offerings for advanced traders and the most sophisticated crypto investors,” Coinbase said, adding that they’ve seen “a swell in demand from institutional investors over the past year.”
The company has already launched margin trading for institutional investors and new tools to help investors segregate their trading strategies.
“If I wanted to buy USD 100 million of Bitcoin, we bring the tools to Coinbase to allow users to execute more efficiently,” Greg Tusar, Co-founder of Tagomi, told Bloomberg, adding that coupled together with custody and deep liquidity in the Coinbase liquidity pool, together with the existing OTC operation, “that’s a combination of things that no one else has.”
Major crypto companies such as Pantera, Bitwise, Multicoin Capital, and Galaxy Digital are among the clients of the brokerage.
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