Coinbase wants its Coinbase Cloud division to become the cryptocurrency equivalent of Amazon Web Services (AWS). The infrastructure product of the exchange will “help developers build their applications” at a faster step, said Surojit Chatterjee – Chief Product Officer.
How Does Coinbase Cloud’s Future Look Like?
Established nearly 20 years ago, Amazon Web Services (AWS) – a subsidiary of the e-commerce giant Amazon – is now the company’s main profit engine. It generated more than $13 billion in annual operating earnings in 2020 on a revenue base of nearly $45 billion (64% of its parent firm’s total).
At its core, AWS provides on-demand cloud computing platforms to individuals, firms, and even governments on a pay-as-you-go basis. One of its services includes Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), which provides users with a virtual cluster of computers available 24/7 through the Internet. Currently, AWS is the leader in the cloud sector, surpassing its closest competitors Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.
Having said that, it is no wonder that Coinbase wants one of its infrastructure products to look like AWS, as Surojit Chatterjee – CPO at the exchange – said in a recent interview with Forbes:
“We want to be the AWS of crypto. We are building this whole Coinbase Cloud suite of products that you can think of as crypto computing services to help developers build their applications faster.”
Price swings in the cryptocurrency market occur quite frequently. As such, the exec revealed that Coinbase is seeking to boost trading income by providing subscription services that can withstand the fluctuations. For that purpose, the venue provides staking possibilities, custody options, an e-commerce checkout system, and Visa debit cards to customers.
The acquisition of Coinbase Cloud (formerly known as Bison Trails) marked another vital step in Coinbase’s transition into a “mature financial system,” he added.
“Crypto is not just buying and selling tokens, it’s building this whole financial system on top of blockchain. We think we can play a big part in leading our customers to the utility phase of crypto from this first phase, which is more investment or speculation driven…our goal is to be the primary financial account of the crypto economy for our customers,” Chatterjee concluded.
Surojit Chatterjee, Source: Business Insider
Currently, Coinbase Cloud supports funds, decentralized applications, crypto custodians, and holders. Some of its prominent clients include New York-based fintech capital Current, venture firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), and Turner Sports.
Coinbase’s Success in 2021
Arguably the most significant achievement for Coinbase this year was the public listing on Nasdaq in the middle of April. By doing so, it became the first major exchange with a presence on the global marketplace.
Upon listing, a single COIN share peaked at nearly $400, while at the moment of writing these lines, it is hovering around $270.
Without any doubt, the development caused massive excitement in the cryptocurrency space as it might have been one of the reasons for bitcoin’s all-time high price (until then) of nearly $65,000 registered a few days later.