Coinbase has made *usability* central to its product.
It has succeeded in being the easiest-to-use exchange, perfect for crypto novices.
They could have easily gone in another direction and built for power-users.
12/
Coinbase has chosen *safety* over speed.
Compare the trajectories of Coinbase and Binance.
Binance adds new assets at an insane rate. But the company doesn't really care about the legitimacy of these coins.
Coinbase moves slower, vetting more carefully.
(Aside)
This was a key disagreement at Coinbase during Balaji Srinivasan's term as CTO.
Apparently, Srinivasan constantly pushed for Coinbase to prioritize adding currencies, while COO Asiff Hirji wanted to the company to focus on serving institutions.
13/
Coinbase has played nice with regulators choosing to ask for *permission* rather than beg for forgiveness.
The focus on building a regulatory "moat" really began in 2015, with Coinbase bringing talent like Brian Brooks onboard, an EVP from Fannie Mae.
14/
Taken together, these decisions established Coinbase as:
1. The on-ramp for crypto n00bs 2. The trusted partner for institutions
$COIN's product sprawl reflects that positioning with a full-suite of offerings for consumers and enterprises.
15/
So, what do the numbers look like?
Very impressive.
Coinbase mostly makes money on trading fees. Crypto mania has made this a particularly active time to trade BTC et al.
Why: I think I captured some of what makes this such a special firm. I also got to talk with a lot of those familiar with the origins which made for a rich story.
Toucan brings carbon-credits on-chain. This unlocks new uses like using carbon as a DeFi collateral. It's a major player in the Regenerative Finance (ReFi) space.
Farcaster is a "sufficiently decentralized" social media platform. Greater wallet adoption and higher-quality usage makes it a good time to start a web3 social network.
As outsiders in Silicon Valley, Coatue won competitive deals by conducting extensive research *before* meeting founders.
Arriving prepared changes everything, making for better conversations and connections.
@coatue If you want to jump straight into the piece (with lots more context), click the link below. And, of course, make sure to subscribe to The Generalist :)
For a quick-recap of the 10 lessons, keep scrolling: