Coinbase acquires Utopia Labs to accelerate on-chain payments
Coinbase is actively trying to improve its range of services. This week, the crypto exchange completed its acquisition of Utopia Labs, a San Francisco-based blockchain fintech company. The acquisition aims to refine Coinbase’s on-chain payment systems and services, although financial details were not disclosed. Coinbase’s valuation was around $59.49 billion (approximately Rs. 5,02,159 crore) in March, dropping to $36.26 billion (approximately Rs. 3,06,073 crore) in September.
Going forward, the Utopia Labs team will join forces with the team behind Base – Coinbase’s proprietary layer 2 scaling network, the exchange said in an official statement. blog post. The exchange is expected to improve the tracking of smart contracts, transactions and tokenization activities directly on the blockchain.
“Base supports developers building on-chain apps, those apps attract users on-chain, Wallet onboards those users, and in turn more users encourage more developers to build on-chain. To achieve this, I am excited to share that the Utopia Labs team is joining Base to help accelerate our roadmap for on-chain payments within Coinbase Wallet,” said Jesse Pollak, creator of the layer-2 blockchain Base.
In the coming months, Coinbase will look to bring cheap, fast, and global payments to its users. The focus will also be on strengthening stablecoin services – cryptocurrencies backed by reserve assets such as fiat currency or gold.
“Stablecoins reached $8.5 trillion (approximately Rs. 7,17,48,727 crore) in transaction volume across 1.1 billion transactions in Q2 2024, and continuing to improve the user experience will be critical as stablecoin payments continue growing,” Pollak added.
Founded in 2021, Utopia Labs claims to have developed several solutions to enable low-cost transactions for Web3 projects. The platform shared the official announcement of Coinbase’s acquisition with a follower base of over 16,000 on X.
Since 2021, we’ve launched a range of products designed to make onchain payments more accessible and efficient for both individuals and businesses.
Today we’re happy to announce that our team is joining @muntbasis to accelerate this vision – a world where we are able to… pic.twitter.com/sMyUAyFMZy
— Utopia Labs (@utopialabs_) November 13, 2024
For Coinbase, this acquisition follows its recent demonstration of what it called the world’s first AI-to-AI crypto transaction. In September, CEO Brian Armstrong featured an AI entity purchasing tokens from another AI entity, highlighting the potential of AI integration within Web3.
In July, OpenAI’s Chris Lehane joined Coinbase’s board of directors as one of three new appointees.
Recently, the exchange introduced its Pre-launch Market initiative to support upcoming crypto projects by serving as a launch pad. Coinbase has also been actively challenging the US SEC, seeking clear guidance on compliant business practices and areas that require caution.
