According to a blog post of January 30, 2020, Coinbase Custody has announced the launch of a new entity in Ireland under the name of Coinbase Custody International. Based in Dublin, the new entity will focus on institutional clients like hedge funds and family offices across Europe; provide users with the same “industry-leading” enterprise-grade custodial services as Coinbase Custody. In addition to offering institutional custody services, all staking activity performed by Coinbase Exchange will transition to Coinbase Custody International.
Coinbase Custody is one of the leading platforms offering institutional-grade custodial services for institutional investors. With its first-ever office in the European market, the company aims to proliferate into the industrial domains, expand its operational capabilities, and strengthen its position in the subcontinent.
Coinbase Custody – Mission Europe
After becoming a leading fiat-based exchange in the United States, Coinbase’s focus is now on the European markets. Although the company’s headquarters outside the United States is in London, the exchange is also strengthening its presence in Ireland; making it the hub for its European operations.
“Europe is our fastest-growing geographic segment and our international launch is a direct result of client demand,” Coinbase stated. “By offering our services from the same region in which our clients are located, it’s our goal that they will benefit from greater legal and regulatory clarity.”
To meet its European ambitions, the exchange also obtained an e-money license in Ireland last October, allowing it to offer financial services throughout Europe.
Coinbase Custody has been offering services to its clients in Europe since 2018, based in the UK, Germany, Finland, Switzerland, and other countries. The International Dublin office is likely to open doors of more lucrative opportunities for the custodian service provider. The custodial services will greatly benefit Coinbase Custody International; also because they will be combined with the expertise and market awareness of the local staff and localized SLAs.
“Our growing and experienced staff in Dublin and London have enabled us to expand our SLAs to fully cover European-based clients. Our SLAs are in effect from 9 am through 2 am GMT (1 am through 6 pm PT), meaning our customers will benefit from almost round the clock support.”
Ireland has some of the lowest corporate taxes in Europe. This has earned the country a reputation as a tax haven, despite protests from legislators who claim otherwise. In fact, the country has had the third lowest corporate tax rate among OECD countries since 2019.
More to come
As crypto-currencies consolidate their position as a new class of financial assets, the demand for services such as crypto-custody grows. Experts have cited the lack of widespread crypto custodial services as one of the problems hindering mainstream adoption of bitcoin and altcoins. However, more financial institutions now offer custodial services; so the problem could soon be a thing of the past.
Currently, Coinbase Custody claims to support more than 30 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC), among others. However, the company says it plans to list more digital assets and roll out new features in the coming months.
With nearly $2 billion in assets under custody, Coinbase Custody is one of the largest custodians of Bitcoin; the platform has done its best to accelerate the global adoption of crypto.
Source: Cointelegraph
In October 2018, Coinbase Custody announced the support of GRM, Sola (SOL) and OXT (OXT) at their respective launch.
Other international companies are also reacting to the various regulatory developments in Europe. For example, the Swiss company Crypto Storage AG announced in December 2019 that it would open a German unit. In doing so, Crypto Storage AG is ensuring that it will be able to comply with the BaFin regulations that have been in force in Germany since 1 January 2020 in order to obtain a license for the safekeeping of digital assets.
