Coinbase Acquires Liquifi to Ease Token Launches

Coinbase is acquiring Liquifi, a platform used by digital asset firms to manage token ownership.

“Teams like Uniswap Foundation, OP Labs, Ethena, Zora and 0x already rely on Liquifi to launch and manage their tokens, and we’re excited to help scale these operations even further,” Coinbase said in a Wednesday (July 2) company blog post.

Launching a token is difficult, per the post, with early-stage teams up against a “fragmented, high-stakes maze of legal, tax and compliance hurdles” in addition to “stitching together cap table spreadsheets, custom vesting scripts and regulatory guesswork.”

Liquifi addresses these issues by automating core workflows while reducing token launch risk, according to the post. The acquisition will let Coinbase work more effectively with builders earlier in their lifecycle, before tokens are launched or listed.

“Over time, we’ll integrate these capabilities with Coinbase Prime to give issuers best-in-class tools directly out of our … Prime platform, while tightening our integration across custody, trading, financing and beyond,” the post said.

The announcement followed last month’s news that Coinbase introduced a stablecoin payments stack designed for eCommerce platforms. Coinbase Payments was created to help payment service providers (PSPs), marketplaces and eCommerce infrastructure providers bring stablecoin payments to market faster.

“More than half of the Fortune 500 is building on-chain, and a third of small businesses already use crypto,” according to a June 18 company blog post. “And yet, despite growing demand, stablecoin payments remain out of reach for most platforms — held back by fragmented tooling, technical overhead and a lack of production-ready infrastructure. Coinbase Payments changes that.”

PYMNTS last week examined some of the obstacles to wider adoption of stablecoin use, noting that one critical barrier is user experience. Although developers might be comfortable with crypto wallets, average users are not. Signing transactions, overseeing private keys and navigating gas fees make stablecoin payments a pain for the uninitiated.

“All of this comes down to what consumers and businesses want,” Raj Dhamodharan, executive vice president of blockchain and digital assets at Mastercard, told PYMNTS in an interview posted in May. “It’s not just about cost, but also trust, simplicity and convenience. Customers want an end-to-end experience.”

“Moving money isn’t the same as creating a complete use case,” he added. “You need to build trust and a great user experience.”

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