Coinbase has made headlines this week, buying one of the most well-funded startups in the cryptocurrency space, Earn.com which is being purchased by the wallet and exchange giant for over $120 million making Balaji Srinivasan the companies first CTO while the transition takes place.
For a long time, Coinbase has sought to expand its involvement within the cryptocurrency and blockchain world. Having recently announced the creation of a venture capital fund for startup companies looking to develop their ideas.
The deal will see Coinbase integrate a vast number of highly skilled staff into its existing team. Coinbase has every intention to continue the projects that Earn have started. Coinbase and Earn have stated:
“Earn has built a paid email product that is arguably one of the earliest practical blockchain applications to achieve meaningful traction. We will keep Earn’s business running because it’s showing a lot of promise and potential.”
Coinbase will acquire Earn.com for $120 million, consisting of a mixture of cash, company stock and, interestingly, cryptocurrency assets.
Earn.com began its life under the name, 21 inc[1], and started off as a way for users to create, buy and sell machine-payable apps. It also sold the 21 bitcoin computer, a low powered piece of hardware that allowed users to mine small amounts of bitcoin and develop simple bitcoin applications.
In February 2017[2], 21 took its first steps towards being an e-mail platform, with over $116m in funding accrued since 2015 they went on to make the platform to the public in May.
21 went on to change its name to Earn.com in late 2017[3], transitioning to become a paid e-mail[4] and social media platform. Allowing its users to earn
