Coinbase Acquires Crypto Data Service Skew: Report

Coinbase acquires crypto data and analytics platform Skew which is the first acquisition after the company went public recently as we reported in our latest Coinbase news.

Coinbase acquires crypto data service company Skew and the acquisition as announced today will allow the exchange to provide real-time data to institutional investors. Skew was formed in 2018 by Emmanuel Goh and Tim Noat and it offers market data and charts tailored for traders similarly to Tradingview and Messari.

We’re excited to announce the acquisition of @skewdotcom a leading institutional data analytics platform. https://t.co/5PMqOj8Oq8

— Coinbase News (@CoinbaseNews) April 30, 2021

In the reports we see today, coinbase said that the Skew Analytics offering will be integrated into the Coinbase Prime platform for institutional investors. When asked if this means that the Skew subscribers will gain access to Coinbase Prime of the offering will be live as an independent product, one spokesperson said this is all TBD.  Greg Tusar who is the Coinbase vice president of Institutional product said:

“Through this acquisition, Coinbase reinforces our commitment to serving the growing institutional market. We know that access to high-quality data is essential for institutions assessing investments in crypto assets.”

Institutional investors are big businesses for Coinbase since the company stored $122 billion of assets on the platform from institutions which represents more than half of the total $223 billion in total assets that are stored on the platform. Coinbase still hasn’t reported how much it spent on Skew. Today’s announcement marked the company’s first acuqieisiton since Coinbase went public in the direct listing on Nasdaq. The shares in Coinbase debuted at $381 but the price dropped below the $300 mark.

Selling shares on the public exchanges raises plenty of money which growing companies often spend on developing their businesses. Coinbase already offers similar services on Coinbase Prime which is basically using the money to take quite the aggressive approach to M&A while absorbing the industry’s biggest hotshots before they become competitors. Coinbase did this for years as it ramped up a spending spree in 2018 after it made a ton of money from 2017’s BTC boom. It even purchased 16 companies and made plenty of investments.

Coinbase even acquired blockchain infrastructure company Bison Trails along with RouteFire. Last year, the company acquired the crypto trading platform Tagomi where the current VP Tusar was one of the co-founders.