Coinbase VP Hopes to Lure Institutional Investors With New Crypto Products
*By Madison Alworth*
The most popular Bitcoin trading platform announced changes Tuesday that were designed to attract institutional investors to its exchange.
Coinbase, the six-year-old digital currency platform, said it was launching four new initiatives, including a secure way to store crypto assets, something institutional clients had long requested.
"We really pride ourselves on being the most trusted, the most secure venue, within the cryptocurrency space," said Eric Scro, Coinbase's vice president of finance.
The storage feature, called Coinbase Custody, is accepting applications as of Tuesday. Institutions who want to participate must have at least $10 million in deposits.
The company also introduced a Prime service that gives institutional investors more traditional investing tools and controls; a Markets product that creates a centralized pool of liquidity; and an Institutional Coverage Group that provides client services like sales, research, and market operations.
With more than 20 million accounts, Coinbase is the most popular exchange for Bitcoin and other digital currencies, but it faces stiff competition from ambitious rivals such as Robinhood.
That free stock market trading platform [recently announced](http://fortune.com/2018/05/10/robinhood-stock-crypto-trading/) $363 million in new funding, some of which will go toward building a cryptocurrency trading product by the end of the year.
The [New York Stock Exchange](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/07/technology/bitcoin-new-york-stock-exchange.html) is reportedly interested in developing a crypto exchange too.
"We at Coinbase, we view ourselves as the cryptocurrency place, the cryptocurrency company," Scro said in an interview Tuesday with Cheddar. "And yes, there is going to be competition, but we welcome that competition."
Scro said that the interest in cryptocurrency that he has seen from institutional investors and would-be rivals like the NYSE is a sign of "the evolution and the maturation of the asset class."
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/coinbase-goes-after-a-new-customer).
Stan Farnsworth, chief marketing officer at PulseForge, joined Cheddar to talk about his company's debut at CES 2022 and how it plans to innovate the sustainable tech manufacturing space. PulseForge is bringing a new approach to industrial thermal processing, which contributes to 30 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to Farnsworth. "By using 85 percent less energy in the processing of materials through a variety of manufacturing processes, we can make a direct impact in reducing carbon output and reducing carbon footprint associated with manufacturing," he said.
Oliver Chen, senior retail analyst at Cowen, joined Cheddar's "Opening Bell" to discuss the latest details about department store chain Kohl's after it received at least two offers from buyers to take the company private. Chen stated that Kohl's is an attractive landing spot for prospective buyers because of its premium real estate and undervalued stock prices. He also noted that despite the rise in online shopping, there is still room for brick and mortar shops to flourish. "We're very bullish on bricks meets clicks. The integration of stores and digital," Chen told Cheddar. "People love to return items in stores, people love the treasure hunt of shopping and the convenience and immediacy of stores."
Four-day week global, an organization in the UK, is pushing for a society where health and wellbeing come first, and a world in which people work to live, rather than live to work. They're demanding a four-day work week based o a recent study that proves productivity increases when working hours are reduced to 32 hours a week. Now, at least 30 companies in the UK are taking part in a four-day work week trial. joining me now is Charlotte Lockhart, founder of four-day week global.
The streaming giant Netflix posted its latest earnings from its fourth quarter after the close on Thursday. The company's stock plummeted shortly after the company warned that its rate of subscription additions are slowing down. Senior Reporter at MarketWatch Jon Swartz, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
