There was a discussion about Coinbase Ventures $COIN on the @BanklessHQ "Robinhood vs. Coinbase" episode. While I don’t have an answer on the value of CB Ventures' portfolio, here’s what I found in the disclosures:
✔️ Coinbase records investments at cost, and adjusts to fair value if there is a transaction "for the same or similar investments of the same issuer"
✔️ Over the years, they have invested about $522 million, with $320 million invested in 2021 alone
✔️ They have written off $145 million of this amount ("cumulative impairments"), and bought two companies out of this portfolio, Bison Trails and ORDAM ("previously held interest")
✔️ As of the end of 2024, the portfolio was recorded at a value of $361 million
Reading about the Coinbase Commerce Payments Protocol that will power USDC on Shopify. If I understand correctly, the protocol allows implementing rules similar to the rules currently enforced by Visa and Mastercard:
✔️ The protocol introduces two concepts: "Escrow" and "Operator"
✔️ Funds from payers are collected into the "Escrow" before being transferred to the merchant
✔️ The "Operator", which can be an "advanced smart contract", facilitates the transfer of funds from the "Escrow" to the merchant (or back to the payer)
✔️ "The protocol is not concerned with how the operator is implemented and just recognizes it as an address"
...so Visa or Mastercard can build their own "Operators" that implement the scheme's rules through smart contracts.
How cool is that?!!!
$COIN $V $MA