Cryptocurrency exchange company Coinbase has announced the acquisition of Earn.com, a platform that allows senders to pay users in cryptocurrency to reply to emails and complete tasks.
In an online post, Earn said that it is going to get “bigger and better” as a result of this deal. For existing users and senders, operations will continue as usual in the short-term. However, Earn said that it has put its token launch on hold for the time being and will instead focus on integrating with Coinbase and scaling up its service.
1/ One thing that is great about @earndotcom is that it is helping shift cryptocurrency from the investment phase to the utility phase. Great real world use case.
— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) April 17, 2018
5/ Our goal is 1B monthly transacting users accessing the open financial system within 5 years. To get there we'll need to see crypto usage grow with commerce, dapps, emerging markets, and more. Each of Coinbase's business units are working toward this common goal.
— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) April 17, 2018
“We’re going to be doubling down on the Earn business within Coinbase, as they have built a paid email product that is arguably one of the earliest practical blockchain applications to achieve meaningful traction,” Brian Armstrong, co-founder and CEO at Coinbase, said in a blog post.
While the terms of the deal have not been disclosed officially, Recode reported that the offer was a little over $100 million.
As part of the acquisition, Earn’s co-founder and CEO, Balaji Srinivasan, will join Coinbase as the company’s first Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Srinivasan, a well-known crypto expert, was a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz prior to serving as the CEO of Earn.com. He was also the cofounder and CTO of Counsyl.
The announcement comes on the heels of the recent acquisition of mobile ethereum wallet Cipher Browser by Coinbase.