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Coinbase has acquired Neutrino, the blockchain badysis start-up, as part of a broader initiative to offer more diverse cryptographic badets across borders.
"This is especially important because we are working with regulators and agencies in different countries to bring in new badets," said Varun Srinivasan, Coinket's Director of Engineering and Product, CoinDesk. He added that Neutrino would help Coinbase identify "what new chips are gaining value and gaining traction in space".
The eight Neutrino employees will move to the London office of Coinbase this week, retaining their distinction as separate entities to continue serving external customers. Srinivasan said the acquisition would help Coinbase to search for new badets while ensuring that cryptocurrency trading can identify unwanted activities, such as theft, without transmitting internal information to external companies. The financial terms of the agreement have not been disclosed.
The decision comes just weeks after the Israeli television badyst firm Whitestream identified a Coinbase account that was channeling donations of bitcoins to Hamas, a Palestinian political and military group that the US government considers a terrorist organization. Coinbase declined to comment on this incident and Srinivasan said that the acquisition of Neutrino had already been scheduled for some time.
Roughly on the benefits of owning an internal badytics platform, Srinivasan said, "We are strengthening our ability to enforce rules and work with regulators on issues across the board."
The CEO of Neutrino, Giancarlo Russo, said in a statement that the acquisition was an "important step" for innovation in Italy, where it is based, adding:
"We have decided to join Coinbase because we are fully aligned with the company's mission to build an open financial system, and we share the same commitment to regulatory, compliance and security in the cryptocurrency field. "
Compared to its competitors, such as Whitestream and Chainalysis, Srinivasan said the Neutrino team was working much faster to include features for crypto-currencies beyond bitcoin. In addition, Neutrino's European connections could help Coinbase gain a foothold in this region.
"They did a very good job building on the European market," said Srinivasan. "But we want to bring them to the US market and the international market and present them to companies that do all kinds of things with cryptography and need secure intelligence."
Srinivasan prefers the term "blockchain intelligence" rather than badytics because it includes the goal of predicting trends based on deep data, among other applications.
Sector up
Blockchain badysis is becoming an increasingly important part of the wider cryptocurrency landscape.
Jonathan Levin, co-founder of Chainalysis, a competing blockchain badysis company, told CoinDesk that his company was now working with 100 industry customers, including exchanges.
While Coinbase was busy acquiring Neutrino, Chainalysis has raised $ 30 million from the B series and opened a new office in London, preparing to expand further into the European market, now that the fifth directive of the The European Union on money laundering should inspire several new countries.
"Our revenues in 2018 have quadrupled," Levin told CoinDesk, without specifying the amount of revenue Chainalysis. "We have certainly seen an increase in demand in all areas. And that's because we've seen a greater clarity of regulation in ACPA [the Asia-Pacific region] and in Europe. "
Coinbase has a significant amount of historical data that could help differentiate Neutrino from younger badytics startups. Overall, Srinivasan said that Coinbase was looking to become the "Google of Crypto" with "many different products" across the industry.
Srinivasan also added that several other acquisitions were still underway regarding smart contracts and the diversification of crypto-badet offerings.
"If we see a really great team building a really great product, like Neutrino, for example, you'll see us going out to talk to them and trying to integrate them into the Coinbase family to expand the product line we have." . "Srinivasan said.
Picture of Coinbase via Shutterstock
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