Coinbase to acquire leading institutional crypto brokerage, Tagomi

The acquisition will cap off a period of strong institutional focus for Coinbase, and comes at a time when the world’s most recognized professional investors and funds are giving increasing attention to the asset class.

Over the past eight years, Coinbase has built one of the most trusted names in crypto by providing clients with industry-leading trading and custody platforms. Today, we’re at an inflection point in the industry, with some of the world’s top hedge fund and macro investors entering the space and searching for the right infrastructure through which to engage with crypto.

This is why we’re excited to announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Tagomi, the leading crypto prime brokerage platform. The acquisition will bolster our offerings for advanced traders and the most sophisticated crypto investors.

We’ve seen a swell in demand from institutional investors over the past year, driving tremendous growth in our Coinbase Custody offering and increased volumes on our trading platforms. This has led us to build advanced features such as margin trading for institutional investors and new tools to help investors segregate their trading strategies. Most recently, we expanded Coverage for larger clients by adding Brett Tejpaul as Head of Institutional Coverage to our leadership team.

The addition of Tagomi will round out our product suite for the fast-growing institutional trading market. It will allow us to offer custody, professional trading features, and prime brokerage services on one platform, giving sophisticated investors the seamless, powerful trading experience they have come to expect in equities and FX markets.

Since launching 18 months ago, Tagomi has become the platform of choice for many advanced traders, hedge funds, and family offices, including well-known names such as Paradigm, Pantera, Bitwise, Multicoin, and many more. The company has also built out an executive team with a rare blend of traditional financial services and crypto experience, led by co-founders Greg Tusar, Jennifer Campbell, and Marc Bhargava. The Tagomi bench brings experience from leading firms like Goldman Sachs, Citadel, KCG, Tower Research, and USV.

We’re proud to build the foundation for the next wave of crypto investors by bringing onboard the first electronic prime brokerage in crypto. Even in a time of uncertainty, we view now more than ever as the time to push forward our mission of building the crypto-economy. We recognize that the journey is only just beginning, but we’re excited to be builders, and we welcome Tagomi to our mission.

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, and is expected to close later this year.

Coinbase to acquire leading institutional crypto brokerage, Tagomi was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.