By
Bena Ilyas
April 19th, 2024
Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas said that the firm is preparing to expand the categories of financial services it offers to its users.
One of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase is currently in talks to purchase Osprey Funds, an asset management firm, two insiders have revealed.
One of the insiders revealed that the negotiations are ongoing. Though he added that it is still very much informal but it is at an advanced stage.
When Osprey funds were asked to comment on this development, the asset management firm refused to confirm or dispel the rumor. On the other hand, a spokesperson for the publicly traded crypto exchange said that the leading crypto firm does not comment on “rumors and speculation.”
It is important to note that the Brian Armstrong led company has recently been acquiring new firms into its fold. The firm recently purchased crypto-asset companies such as prime broker Tagomi, infrastructure shop Bison Trails, and data platform Skew. All of this are in a bid to improve its services and add more features.
According to a report from TheDechained, Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas said that the firm is preparing “to expand the categories of financial services it offers to its users in the hopes to become the primary financial account in the crypto economy.”
Also, the crypto company also recently announced a $1.25 billion offering of convertible notes and its April public listing has shown that Coinbase is deep-pocketed and has the financial capacity to settle most of its acquisitions.
While the sources were able to confirm that the deal is yet to be finalized, acquiring Osprey would be in line with the earlier reported comments of the firm’s CFO. Asset management would be a new ground for the crypto exchange which already handles billions of dollars in institutional assets under its custody
Interestingly, Osprey is quite renowned for its bitcoin funds. Though its funds pale significantly against that of Grayscale, which is one of the largest in the industry. Osprey has around $155 million worth of assets under management (AUM), GBTC, on the other hand has over $35 billion in its AUM.
The asset management firm recently pioneered the launch of an innovative Polkadot trust product that would be investing exclusively in DOT, the native token of the Polkadot network. This is a first of its kind product in the crypto industry.
The firm’s CEO, Greg King, at the launch of the product had said that “Osprey is just getting started and would launch a series of trust products tied to different cryptocurrencies and tokens.” However, he declined to provide more information concerning other products the company might have in its sight.