By Ben Weiss
Liquifi last raised $5 million in a 2022 seed round led by the venture capital firm Dragonfly, with participation from crypto luminaries like Katie Haun and Balaji Srinivasan. Well-known crypto companies like the Uniswap Foundation, OP Labs, Ethena, and Zora use the platform to track who owns what stake of a cryptocurrency, distribute tokens after vesting periods, and manage the intricacies of tax withholdings.
鈥淭oken creation and cap table management is part of the process,鈥 Ibssa told Fortune, referring to the life cycle of a cryptocurrency. 鈥淚f we want to bring a billion people on chain, this process needs to be much easier and less broken.鈥
Liquifi has compared itself to the private equity-management platform Carta, which lets investors manage stakes in traditional equity deals. In December, a competitor Toku sued Liquifi for allegedly conspiring with an ex-employee for stealing confidential business documents. Liquifi has denied any wrongdoing, and Coinbase has said it will help the firm in its defense.
鈥淲e鈥檙e ten toes deep with Liquifi and in their corner,鈥 said Ibssa. 鈥淲e鈥檝e done rigorous diligence on this.
Coinbase鈥檚 acquisition of Liquifi is the latest in a wave of mergers and acquisitions in crypto. This year, Coinbase acquired Spindl, a crypto-based advertisement company, as well as the team behind Iron Fish, a privacy-focused blockchain. And in May, Coinbase announced the blockbuster acquisition of the crypto derivatives company Deribit for $2.9 billion. It鈥檚 the biggest purchase of a crypto company in the industry鈥檚 16-year history.
Coinbase isn鈥檛 the only heavyweight buying up companies. The fintech giant Stripe officially bought the stablecoin startup Bridge for $1.1 billion in February. And, in June, Stripe announced its purchase of the crypto wallet firm Privy for an undisclosed price.
Coinbase鈥檚 decision to acquire Liquifi puts the crypto exchange the closest it鈥檚 been to competitors like Binance and OKX, which have what they call 鈥渓aunchpads,鈥 or platforms that let projects easily launch their own cryptocurrencies. Rather than collect fees simply after a token is listed, Binance earns money earlier on in a cryptocurrency鈥檚 life cycle.
Liquifi isn鈥檛 a launchpad, but it expands Coinbase鈥檚 repertoire beyond merely listing tokens. 鈥淚t gets us one step closer to that end-to-end platform,鈥 said Ibssa.
As opposed to Binance, Coinbase is a publicly traded company in the U.S. and regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Under Gary Gensler, the former chair under President Joe Biden, the SEC argued that the vast majority of cryptocurrencies are akin to securities, or financial assets like stocks and bonds that must register with the agency.
Ibssa, the Coinbase executive, said that his company would have acquired Liquifi even under Gensler. Still, the pro-crypto administration under President Donald Trump lets the exchange make more ambitious moves, he said.
鈥淩egulatory clarity allows us to take bigger swings,鈥 he added.