Tanaya Macheel

<div id="highlights-block_608c127b2290d" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Skew serves more than 100 hedge funds, trading firms, banks and exchanges</li>
 <li>The acquisition will allow Coinbase to enhance its prime offering for institutions, by letting customers make more informed trading decisions</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Coinbase said Friday that it will acquire Skew, a provider of real-time analytics for crypto derivatives, for an undisclosed sum. The deal is expected to close <a href="https://skew.com/blog/skew-is-joining-coinbase" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">“in the coming month.</a>”



The acquisition will allow Coinbase to enhance its prime offering for institutions, by letting customers make more informed trading decisions.&nbsp;



“Access to high quality data is essential for institutions assessing investments in crypto assets,” Greg Tusar,, Coinbase’s vice president of institutional product, said in a <a href="https://blog.coinbase.com/coinbase-to-acquire-leading-institutional-data-analytics-platform-skew-929e3882ef42" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blog post</a> Friday. “With Skew, we’ll arm professional traders with dynamic, aggregated market data, presented in a highly actionable format, all within our market leading prime brokerage.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Demand for data</h3>



As institutional interest and adoption of digital assets heats up, firms are looking to beef up their offerings with real-time data services (and justify their management fees). M&amp;A is one route. Earlier this year the crypto asset manager NYDIG <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/crypto-prime-brokerages-look-to-bundle-services-to-meet-growing-institutional-demand/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">acquired analytics company Digital Assets Data</a>. But the number of reliable crypto data providers is small.



Last month, billionaire investor George Soros’ fund <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/soros-fund-backs-lukkas-53-million-series-d-funding-round/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">backed the digital asset data provider Lukka</a> in a $53 million Series D fundraise. State Street led its Series C raise in December. And yesterday <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/fidelity-targets-institutional-investors-with-digital-assets-analytics-solution/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Fidelity launched Sherlock</a>, a digital assets analytics solution geared towards fund managers and other institutional investors.



Skew serves more than 100 hedge funds, trading firms, banks and exchanges, including One River Asset Management, Susquehanna International Group and Galaxy Digital. Coinbase has been its client since the launch of its analytics platform in 2018.



Coinbase serves more than 7,000 financial institutions and holds $122 billion in assets from them, which represents more than half of the $223 billion total assets on its platform.

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Coinbase Acquires Skew for Real-time Analytics

Casey Wagner

<div id="highlights-block_608aed951ab66" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Sean Rooney played volleyball for Pepperdine University, where he studied business, before becoming a professional athlete</li>
 <li>Rooney joined Valkyrie as Head of Research earlier this year </li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Olympic gold medalist Sean Rooney has lived in a lot of places and met a lot of different people thanks to his chosen professional sport: volleyball. While it may seem a stretch that volleyball led Rooney to crypto, his experience living overseas, and difficulties opening and closing many bank accounts, make digital assets a natural fit.



“I would play professionally overseas for nine months of the year. Those teams were comprised of players from all over the world,” said Rooney. “Everybody was from a different socio-economic background, everybody thought about money and investments and just culture differently.”&nbsp;



Rooney played volleyball for Pepperdine University, where he studied business, before becoming a professional athlete.&nbsp;



He played on teams based in Russia, South Korea and Italy between 2005 and 2014. He was a member of Team USA during the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games. Moving between countries so often was difficult, though.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">International banking challenges</h3>



“Living abroad, you have to open up bank accounts in different countries,” said Rooney. “There are challenges with international banking, just opening up accounts and transferring money is difficult.”&nbsp;



Once Rooney moved back to the US in 2015, he had to fly from Los Angeles to Milan just to close his accounts and transfer money to his American bank. It was his frustration with how incompatible different financial systems were that motivated him to look into digital assets.&nbsp;



“Because of those experiences, it was kind of a natural progression for me to get into bitcoin and crypto,” said Rooney. “Once I started doing that research, it just consumed me. I was able to connect with other teammates and other people and have these discussions. I sort of have never looked back.”&nbsp;



Rooney started investing in digital currencies in 2015. He was coaching volleyball at Pepperdine at the time, but he kept learning everything he could about crypto. Like so many other crypto fans, he was enamored with the seamlessness and lack of intermediaries.&nbsp;



“One of my favorite things about Bitcoin is that it’s available for pretty much everybody and it&#8217;s borderless and, and it has unique characteristics of transparency,” said Rooney.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Building bridges</h3>



Rooney continued investing and researching for about five years before he was introduced to members of the Valkyrie team in 2020. Steven McClurg, CIO, and Leah Wald, CEO of the alternative asset management firm, shared their vision with Rooney and he was eager to get involved.&nbsp;



“I was able to connect with Leah and Steven, and hearing about the products and what they were trying to do, what we&#8217;re trying to do now, with the company was very compelling,” Rooney said.&nbsp;



Rooney joined Valkyrie as Head of Research earlier this year. The mission of the firm remains the same.&nbsp;



“Building a sort of bridge and connecting the two worlds of traditional finance and crypto is just special, because it hasn&#8217;t really been done yet,” said Rooney And that&#8217;s why I&#8217;m so excited to be a part of it.”&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Correcting misconceptions</h3>



When he made the career switch, the reaction from his peers was mixed.&nbsp;



“My family was completely baffled,” said Rooney. “They were used to me being an athlete, where I&#8217;d perform in front of everybody with my teammates and be judged on the spot, and now I&#8217;m trying to explain this thing that you can&#8217;t see.”&nbsp;



Much like the broader perception of cryptocurrencies, Rooney’s friends and family have since come around to digital assets.&nbsp;



“It&#8217;s been really fun to see people that were really skeptical at first have grown, as the industry as the ecosystem has grown as well,” said Rooney. “I mean, my wife has a Kraken account now. Five years ago she was like ‘stop talking about this stuff. I don&#8217;t want to hear about it.’”&nbsp;



While digital assets are certainly making their way into the mainstream, there are still misconceptions that remain, especially when it comes to security, Rooney said.&nbsp;



“I still hear a ton of remarks about how bitcoin is anonymous and so secretive. And I think that actually, the ability to see where things are moving on the ledger is one of the most unique and powerful things, to be able to confirm transactions and transact in a free manner,” said Rooney. “That&#8217;s what I think is so cool about it.”



Have your own traditional-finance-gone-crypto story to tell? Email us news@blockworks.co.

Gone Crypto: Olympic Gold Medalist to Digital Asset Research

<div id="highlights-block_608ab754f54ec" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The Biden administration is seeking $1.8 trillion, to accompany previous budget proposals, for rebuilding American infrastructure and expanding social programs</li>
 <li>The Biden administration called for higher taxes on corporations and America’s highest earning individuals</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



On the eve of his 100th day in office, President Joe Biden called for a new era of American spending.&nbsp;



Biden, flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, presented his $1.8 trillion plan to overhaul American education, child care and health care systems, funded by the wealthiest taxpayers, in his first joint address to Congress Wednesday night.&nbsp;



“America is moving. Moving forward. And we can’t stop now,” Biden said. “We’re in a great inflection point in history. We have to do more than just build back. We have to build back better.”



The Biden administration is seeking $1.8 trillion, to accompany <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/biden-seeks-1-52t-for-health-education-as-recovery-inches-on/">previous budget proposals</a>, for rebuilding American infrastructure and expanding social programs. The American Families Plan focuses mainly on making education and child care more accessible.&nbsp;



The proposal includes $200 billion to be used toward new education initiatives, including universal preschool for 5 million children in low-income and working-class families and two free years of community college education to all Americans, including Dreamers. The plan also includes $225 billion to be put toward federally subsidized child care and paid family leave.&nbsp;



“When this nation made 12 years of public education universal in the last century, it made us the best-educated and best-prepared nation in the world, but the world is catching up. They are not waiting,” the president said.&nbsp;



“Twelve years is no longer enough today to compete in the 21st Century. That’s why the American Families Plan guarantees four additional years of public education for every person in America – starting as early as we can.”&nbsp;



The Biden administration called for higher taxes on corporations and America’s highest earning individuals. The American Families Plan includes $80 billion in enhancements to the I.R.S. The administration estimates that this could potentially raise an additional $700 billion from high earners and corporations currently evading tax payments.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“It’s time for corporate America and the wealthiest 1% of Americans to pay their fair share. Just pay their fair share,” Biden said. “A recent study shows that 55 of the nation’s biggest corporations paid zero in federal income tax last year.”



The American Families Plan will operate alongside Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, the American Jobs Plan, which was revealed in March. The infrastructure plan includes $621 billion for rebuilding and repairing bridges, roads, mass transit and airports. It also proposes $111 billion for updating electric grids and expanding broadband capabilities.&nbsp;



Wednesday evening also marked the first time in history that a US president was accompanied by two women, Pelosi and Harris, during a Congressional address.&nbsp;



When asked about her thoughts on the historic moment, Pelosi told MSNBC on Wednesday, “It’s about time.”

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