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The M&A season is in full swing.
Sheraz Ahmed, managing partner at Storm Partners, told me that the acquisition and potential futures “signal a shift.”
“We are moving from a fragmented ecosystem to an ecosystem where several dominant players are absorbing the best technology. It certainly brings legitimacy, but it also raises doubts about decentralization,” he added.
One of the big players looking to acquire more is Coinbase.
“We are looking at acquisition opportunities, not to mean swinging on every pitch,” CEO Brian Armstrong told Bloomberg earlier this month. However, he was careful to add that it didn’t mean they were interested in every opportunity.
One of the biggest potential targets is clearly the circle. In particular, there are multiple reports that companies, including Ripple, are interested in Stablecoin publishers. Coinbase and Circle clearly have a rather close working relationship, so it makes sense for Circle It was To sell itself, Coinbase may be one of the top candidates to buy it.
“I’m sure Coinbase will chase the circle,” Bitwise’s Ryan Rasmussen told me because of the “engaging opportunities” the circle presents. Coinbase has about $9 billion in cash, he pointed out. This means that the company is ready to deploy capital.
“They are already clearly leaning against USDC as a stub coin that can be trusted across the basic ecosystem and actually beyond Coinbase. You get the USDC yield just to keep it in your account.
A bid for the Stablecoin issuer is heading towards a bigger goal that both he and Bitwise consider Coinbase to have: Crypto’s Amazon.
“When I see it through that lens, it opens up a wide range of ideas… I think Stablecoin publishers like Circle are certainly obvious targets to them, and I think they’ll pursue that.
He also managed to see the RWA platform bids secured and AML/KYC play in chain analysis. However, if Coinbase wanted to put zeros in Onchain Economy, he could see Alchemy become their target.
“When you look where Coinbase is headed, it’s clear that they’re building a vertically integrated crypto empire. They want not only trading volume, but infrastructure, compliance and reach.
“Church, analysis, and wallet infrastructure is all in scope. There’s less about getting hype and ensuring long-term control.”
However, Rasmussen’s skepticism that Coinbase will consider different Stablecoin publishers if Coinbase is off the table. Instead, he would have expected them to chase after companies in the Stablecoins payment and service provider segment.