Coinbase Launches Revamped Prime Brokerage Services

Coinbase is adding new services to its prime brokerage offering in response to client demand. 

The revamped version of Coinbase Prime will offer new features, including easier transfers between segregated cold storage and trading balance, and access to more venues for deep liquidity. It will also feature smart order routing, which will automatically route orders to the venue with the best all-in prices. 

“We are bringing trading, algos, smart order routing, along with one of the strongest custody offerings in the industry; building our institutional product suite to provide institutions with the most seamless, intuitive, and trusted solution to manage crypto assets,” said Brett Tejpaul, Head of Institutional Sales, Trading, Custody and Prime Services at Coinbase. “Clients coming from other asset classes are looking for a bundling of services and Coinbase Prime does that.”

Real-time tracking

Skew, a crypto data visualization and analytics platform that Coinbase acquired last month will support Coinbase Prime and allow for real-time tracking of spot and derivatives, fulfilling an essential data requirement for traders. 

The cryptocurrency exchange first launched Prime for institutional investors in May 2018 when those investors were beginning to enter the crypto space. 

“The cryptocurrency market is maturing rapidly as more sophisticated institutional participants enter the space,” Coinbase wrote in the Prime launch announcement blog in 2018. 

Today, as retail and institutional interest in cryptocurrencies continues to increase, digital asset services companies are vying to meet demand. 

“Advanced traders need more complex tooling, trading features, and reporting — we are proud to bring them that and much more with the launch of Coinbase Prime,” Coinbase wrote in a blog post Tuesday. 

Big picture projects

Coinbase reported first quarter earnings that came in just below expectations earlier this month. The company reported an increase in users, likely attributable to crypto’s significant returns during 2020 and the beginning of 2021. But as digital assets extend losses currently, there is concern over growth moving forward. 

“We seek to operate the company at roughly break even in terms of profitability, smoothed out over time, for the time being,” Coinbase said in its shareholder letter at the time of the earnings release. 

For now, Coinbase is focusing on the big picture and projects like Prime, Tejpaul said. 

“As mentioned  in our shareholder letter,” he said, “we are in the early stages in the development of the crypto economy and our focus is on investing for long-term growth.”