Coinbase continues to build out its crypto empire, acquiring token management startup Liquifi just two months after its $2.9 billion purchase of Deribit.
Leading United States-based centralized cryptocurrency exchange (CEX) Coinbase has acquired Liquifi, a Dragonfly Capital-backed token management platform that helps companies manage their tokens.
In a Wednesday blog announcement, Coinbase said the deal will help it work with new crypto startups earlier in their development, before they even launch a token. Liquifi’s tools will also be added to Coinbase Prime, the company’s platform for institutions.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Following the news, shares of COIN rose nearly 5% to $351.85, according to data from Yahoo Finance.
“Our goal of bringing more than a billion people onchain depends on the teams who are creating the next generation of onchain protocols and applications. But here’s the truth: launching a token today is too hard,” explained Greg Tusar, Coinbase’s vice president and head of institutional product in the blog post.
With Liquifi, Coinbase Prime users can soon track token ownership, unlock schedules, and ensure regulatory compliance. The token management platform is already used by major crypto teams, including Uniswap Foundation, Optimism, and Zora to automate tasks like vesting and cap table management, the announcement notes.
Founded in 2021 by Robin Ji and Oliver Tang, Liquifi secured $5 million in seed funding in 2022. The round was led by Dragonfly Capital and included other notable investors, including Nascent, Alliance DAO, 6th Man Ventures, Robot Ventures, Y Combinator, Balaji Srinivasan, and Anthony Pompliano, among others.
The acquisition follows on the heels of Coinbase’s $2.9 billion purchase of crypto derivatives exchange Deribit in May — the largest M&A deal in the crypto sector to date. As The Defiant previously reported, Deribit handles around 85% of all open interest in Bitcoin options, making it the dominant player in the space.
Last month, Coinbase announced a slew of updates, including that the CEX is planning to launch perpetual swaps in the U.S. this month, as well as that it’s integrating Base decentralized exchanges directly into the Coinbase app.
