Coinbase Ventures

On April 5, 2018, CoinbaseCoinbaseCoinbase is a U.S. operator of crypto asset trading platforms, founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, whose listed parent is Coinbase Global, Inc.; it went public through a direct listing on Nasdaq (ticker COIN) in April 2021 and joined the S&P 500 in May 2025. It provides crypto trading, custody, staking, and stablecoin-related services, launched USDC with Circle, develops the Ethereum layer-2 network Base, and acquired the crypto options exchange Deribit in 2025; its venture investing operates as Coinbase Ventures.Open the full entry announced the establishment of Coinbase Ventures to fund early-stage startups in the crypto asset and blockchain space. In the launch announcement, Emilie ChoiEmilie ChoiEmilie Choi is an American business executive and the President and Chief Operating Officer of Coinbase. She joined Coinbase in March 2018, became COO in June 2019 and also became President in November 2020. Previously, she spent more than eight years as LinkedIn’s Vice President and Head of Corporate Development, leading acquisitions including Lynda and SlideShare, and served on the boards of Okta, ZipRecruiter and Naspers.Open the full entry explained that investments do not require startups to enter into a formal business partnership with Coinbase and may include teams that compete with parts of Coinbase’s business, and that receiving an investment does not mean a startup’s token will receive priority listing on Coinbase.⁠[2]

The investments listed in Coinbase’s Q2 2018 retrospective included OpenSea, Celo, Compound, Etherscan, Spacemesh, and Unlock Protocol, spanning digital asset marketplaces, lending protocols, blockchain infrastructure, and developer tools.⁠[3]

In July 2021, Coinbase’s market newsletter confirmed that Coinbase Ventures had participated, alongside investors including SoftBankSoftBank GroupSoftBank Group (SoftBank Group Corp.) is an investment holding company headquartered in Tokyo, founded by Masayoshi Son in 1981. Starting out as a distributor of personal computer software, it moved into the internet, broadband and mobile communications, and has since become an investment group centered on AI-related assets such as Arm, the SoftBank Vision Funds and OpenAI.Open the full entry and Thoma Bravo, in the $900 million funding round of the crypto asset exchange FTXFTXFTX was a cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2019 by Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang that operated FTX.com, moved its headquarters from Hong Kong to the Bahamas in 2021 and was valued at $32 billion in January 2022. In November 2022 it filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection amid a liquidity crisis, and Bankman-Fried was later convicted of fraud and related charges. Its reorganization plan took effect in January 2025, after which the FTX Recovery Trust began paying creditors in stages.Open the full entry.⁠[4]

Emilie Choi explained in August 2021 that Coinbase Ventures had by then invested in more than 150 projects, investing with the participation of Coinbase employees and without outside limited partners or a traditional fund committee. Its investments covered trading platforms, crypto tax services, digital asset marketplaces, infrastructure, and decentralized finance. She said that investments could lead to partnership or acquisition opportunities, but that these were not a prerequisite.⁠[5]

On January 18, 2022, OpenSea announced its acquisition of Dharma Labs, with Dharma co-founder and CEO Nadav Hollander joining OpenSea as chief technology officer. Dharma had developed consumer products connecting fiat currency and blockchains and is listed in Coinbase Ventures’ portfolio directory. The acquisition announcement did not disclose the deal price.⁠[6][7]

On November 11, 2022, FTX Trading and related entities filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. This occurred after Coinbase Ventures had participated in FTX’s funding round.⁠[8][4]

On January 30, 2024, Portal announced that it had closed a $34 million seed round, with participants including Coinbase Ventures, Arrington CapitalArrington CapitalArrington Capital is a firm that invests in digital assets and Web3 and manages funds including Arrington XRP Capital Fund; since 2025, through that fund, it has served as sponsor of the special purpose acquisition company Armada Acquisition Corp. II, driving its merger with the XRP treasury company Evernorth.Open the full entry, OKXOKXOKX is a global digital-asset trading platform that began operating in 2017 under the name OKEx. Different regional entities provide trading, wallet, payment and related services; the global platform, OKCoin and locally licensed entities must be distinguished.Open the full entry Ventures, and Gate.io. Portal develops a bitcoin-based cross-chain trading protocol, a decentralized exchange, and a wallet. Its CEO said that the SAFEs and convertible notes used in the round had all converted into equity; together with an $8.5 million pre-seed raise in 2021, the company’s total funding reached $42.5 million.⁠[9]

In its company launch announcement, Catena Labs disclosed $18 million in funding led by a16z crypto, with backing from Coinbase Ventures, Circle Ventures, Breyer Capital, Pillar VC, and others. The company develops identity, payment, and transaction control infrastructure for AI agents and released the open-source Agent Commerce Kit.⁠[10]

Coinbase Global completed its acquisition of the derivatives trading platform Deribit on August 14, 2025. Per the acquisition accounting disclosed in the company’s 2025 annual report, the consideration was $4,294.552 million, consisting of $721.46 million in cash and $3,573.092 million in fair value of Class A common stock issued. This was a corporate acquisition by the Coinbase group, and the amount is the purchase consideration recognized at closing.⁠[11]

In November 2025, Coinbase Ventures published its investment themes for 2026, covering asset tokenization, specialized exchanges and trading terminals, next-generation decentralized finance, and AI and robotics. Specific directions discussed by the team included real-world asset perpetual futures, unsecured credit, and privacy-focused financial applications, and the team said it was looking for startup teams in these areas.⁠[12]

On January 21, 2026, Neynar announced that it was acquiring Farcaster from Merkle and would take over maintenance of the Farcaster protocol, operation of the client, and the Clanker business. Coinbase Ventures’ website lists Farcaster as a portfolio company and marks it as acquired.⁠[13][1]

In May 2026, Catena Labs raised a $30 million Series A co-led by Acrew Capital and a16z crypto and applied for a U.S. national trust bank charter. The company treats spending limits, payee rules, and audit trails for AI agents as part of its product. As of that funding announcement, the bank charter application was under review.⁠[14]

On June 2, 2026, Coinbase Ventures announced an investment in Ethena through open-market purchases of ENA tokens. The two sides also disclosed a partnership around on-chain finance and savings products. This investment was a token purchase, distinct from an equity financing in which capital is invested in the project company.⁠[15]

In June 2026, EarnOS launched the ero app and disclosed a $6 million Pre-Series A round, with investors including 1kx, Coinbase Ventures, Circle Ventures, and Social Graph Ventures. The company also received $12.5 million in four-year non-dilutive funding from Verona; the two together totaled $18.5 million. ero focuses on brand advertising and genuine user engagement, and the $30 million annual rewards commitment announced at launch is a brand rewards program.⁠[16]

Venice AI announced a $65 million Series A at a $1 billion valuation, led by Dragonfly with participation from Coinbase Ventures, North Island Ventures, and others. The company provides privacy-focused AI services and model APIs and described the round as its first outside capital.⁠[17]

Latitude, a cross-border payments infrastructure company, announced an $8 million seed round in March 2026 and on September 9 announced a $35 million Series A. Coinbase Ventures participated in both rounds; the latter was led by Oak HC/FTOak HC/FTOak HC/FT is a venture capital and growth equity firm headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, that focuses on healthcare and financial technology. It was spun out in 2014 by the healthcare and fintech team of the venture firm Oak Investment Partners and has invested in companies including VillageMD, Aspire Health, and CareBridge.Open the full entry, bringing total funding to $43 million. Latitude uses stablecoin settlement and local payment networks to connect fiat payments and collections across countries.⁠[18][19]

On April 29, 2026, SolanaSolanaSolana is a proof-of-stake (PoS) public blockchain designed for high throughput and low latency, with SOL as its native token; it was developed by Solana Labs and launched Mainnet Beta in March 2020. It is known for design choices such as its Proof of History clock and parallel execution, suffered several network-wide outages in its early years, and became one of the crypto industry’s focal points in events including the FTX collapse, U.S. SEC lawsuits, and the listing of Solana ETFs.Open the full entry multisig protocol provider Squads announced an $18 million strategic round led by Solana VenturesSolana VenturesSolana Ventures is the strategic venture investment arm of Solana Labs, providing capital and resources to teams building on Solana and across the broader digital asset and blockchain ecosystem.Open the full entry, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Haun VenturesHaun VenturesHaun Ventures is a venture capital firm founded in 2022 by Katie Haun, a former U.S. federal prosecutor and former general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. It focuses on digital assets, financial infrastructure, and related frontier technologies; it raised $1.5 billion across two funds at launch and a further $1 billion in 2026.Open the full entry and others, to scale its stablecoin platform Altitude.⁠[34]