The latest official blog of cryptocurrency giant Coinbase reveals the acquisition of institutional crypto brokerage, Tagomi that offers crypto trading for institutional clients. 

Announced on May 27, Wednesday, Coinbase notes that they have seen a rise in top edge fund and macro investors over the past year. The exchange elaborates that with Tagomi’s acquisition, they will “bolster their offerings for advanced traders and the most sophisticated crypto investors”.

While they haven’t disclosed further details about the acquisition, reports note that an anonymous person close to the matter said that Coinbase has signed a deal in its privately-held stock. In contrast, a source concerning Tagomi highlighted that the acquisition points to $100 million. 

Coinbase Set to Improve Institutional Trading Offering 

However, in late November, 2019, reports about Coinbase acquiring Tagomi for $150 million surfaced on the web but Coinbase as well as Tagomi denied the acquisition report. Roughly after six months, Coinbase confirmed that they are agreed to acquire Tagomi. 

Besides the simple trading service, Coinbase has included an array of other products and features including margin trading. Tagomi essentially expanding its services to institutional investors with support to almost 14 different exchanges from the Tagomi account as a part to improve the liquidity of orders. On the other hand, Coinbase seeks to offer its services to institutional traders much similar to Wall Street-level trading experience. That being said, Tagomi's acquisition will serve as strong move for Coinbase. 

The addition of Tagomi 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, read the official blog of Coinbase. 

Tagomi is co-founded by Greg Tusar, Jennifer Campbell, and Marc Bhargava in December 2018. From the past 18 months, the platform amassed some of the prominent names as its advanced traders - some of them are Bitwise, Pantera, Paradigm, Multicoin, and others. 

Conclusively, Coinbase adds that the acquisition is expected to close later his year as many of the conditions including regulatory approvals are yet to receive certainty. 

Casper Johansen, CEO of Tagomi rival firm, The Spartan Group stated that ‘the crypto consolidation has just begun’. That being said, he elaborates on their concern of making M&A (Merger and Acquisition) as one of their core focus areas for the coming years. 

In a nutshell, Coinbase will be competing with BitGo that recently bought portfolio service Lumina and New York-based crypto firm Genesis Capital that had acquired London-based custodian Volt in May this year.