Coinbase announced on November 13 that it has acquired Utopia Labs to build the cryptocurrency exchange’s on-chain payment infrastructure.
The team at Utopia Labs will join Base, Coinbase’s layer 2 scaling network, “to accelerate the on-chain payments roadmap within Coinbase Wallet,” Coinbase said in a blog post.
“There is a natural flywheel here: Base supports developers building on-chain apps, those apps attract on-chain users, Wallet onboards those users, which in turn gets more users building on-chain apps. We encourage you to build,” Coinbase said.
source: DeFiLlama
relevant: Stripe acquires stablecoin platform Bridge in a $1.1 billion deal.
Launched in 2023, Coinbase’s Base is currently the largest Ethereum (ETH) layer 2 (L2) by total value locked (TVL), according to DeFiLlama.
In October, Base TVL surpassed long-time leader Arbitrum among L2s. Base currently holds about $3.15 billion in TVL, while Arbitrum holds about $2.9 billion, according to DeFiLlama data.
On September 12, Coinbase launched its own Bitcoin (BTC) wrapper, cbBTC, on the Base Network.
According to CoinMarketCap, cbBTC has emerged as one of the most popular BTC wrappers with a TVL of over $1.3 billion.
Utopia Labs has created a platform for individuals and protocols to manage cryptocurrency payments, especially stablecoins.
Buyouts are becoming increasingly common in Web3 as payment platforms emerge as acquisition targets.
Last October, payments giant Stripe acquired stablecoin platform Bridge for $1.1 billion to fulfill its promise to add support for stablecoin payments.
On November 11, Coinbase’s stock price soared above $300 for the first time since 2021, amid a significant rise in U.S. cryptocurrency stocks following Donald Trump’s presidential election victory.
Coinbase’s stock trades for about $290 per share as of Nov. 13, according to data from Google Finance.
“We see Coinbase as a beneficiary of the election results as it is struggling with regulatory pressure from the SEC and is actively fighting it in court,” said Michael Miller, equity researcher at Morningstar Inc. .7 Study notes.
“With the incoming Donald Trump administration expected to be friendlier to the cryptocurrency industry, the company’s staking business will face less regulatory pressure,” Miller said.
“Although not directly, a more lenient approach to cryptocurrencies is likely to provide a tailwind for cryptocurrency prices.”
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