By
Steve Muchoki
April 19th, 2024
A spokesperson for Coinbase said that the company remains committed to the Brazilian market regardless of its failed attempt to buy 2TM.
The chances of Coinbase Global, a United States-based crypto exchange platform, acquiring 2TM Participacoes SA, the parent company of Mercardo Bitcoin, a leading crypto platform in Brazil, appears to be over as both parties have ended the ongoing negotiations between them, according to a Bloomberg report.
Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the negotiations, revealed that the deal could have resulted in Coinbase having a minority stake in the Brazilian crypto company.
In the early days of the talks, 2TM had hired JPMorgan Chase & Co to advise on the negotiation
The success of the talks would have helped to steer Coinbase’s push to expand its operations globally. This is because the expansion would have given it a larger customer base in the Latin American region, where 2TM is widely used.
Notably, Brazil is one of the largest crypto markets in the region as its residents had a transaction volume of over $90 billion between 2020 and 2021.
Speaking on the development, a spokesperson for Coinbase said that the company remains committed to the Brazilian market regardless of its failed attempt at buying 2TM.
Coinbase is “committed to the Brazilian market and has the local tech and business leadership in place,” the company spokesperson was quoted saying in a statement.
2TM is the second crypto unicorn in Latin America. The company had seen its valuation rise to new highs after it got $200 million from SoftBank in July last year. The firm also successfully raised $50 million from investors in November last year.
Coinbase Took Goldman Sachs Bitcoin-backed Loan
In another development, Coinbase is cementing its status as a leading light in the crypto sector as available information revealed that the company was the recipient of the first Bitcoin-backed loan offered by Goldman Sachs.
Reports had emerged that Goldman Sachs had offered a mystery institution a Bitcoin-backed loan last week.
According to a top Coinbase executive, Brett Tejpaul, the crypto firm had taken the loan in a bid to cement the relationship between the crypto industry and the traditional finance space.
In his words, “Coinbase’s work with Goldman is a first step in the recognition of crypto as collateral which deepens the bridge between the fiat and crypto economies.”
As of press time, no information was provided about the dollar value of the loan but it is believed that it was collateralized by Coinbase’s Bitcoin holding which is worth roughly $170 million.
Interestingly, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has predicted that the number of crypto users would rise to around 1 billion within the next decade.