Coinbase Plans European Expansion despite Crypto Market Turmoil

Cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase is considering expanding its footprint within Europe, thus widening its operations outside its American home market.

In an interview with Bloomberg, the crypto platform’s Vice President of Business Development and International, Nana Murugesan, also revealed that the exchange is already in the process of registering in several European markets, including Italy, Spain, France and the Netherlands.

Meanwhile, Coinbase already has a presence in Europe and the United Kingdom. It is already registered with the regulators in the UK, Ireland and Germany. Additionally, the report revealed that the exchange hired its first employee in Switzerland.

“In all these markets our intention is to have retail and institutional products,” he said. “It’s almost like an existential priority for us to make sure that we are able to realize our mission by accelerating our expansion efforts.”

Moreover, the American crypto exchange is looking for acquisition opportunities as the current market crash wiped out the valuation of several cryptocurrency companies.

However, the crypto exchange itself was not immune from the impact of the ongoing market crash. It slashed 18 percent of its global staff earlier this month, mostly concentrated in the US, and even recalled several job offers.

Coinbase is headquartered in California and listed on the American stock exchange Nasdaq. It is the leading retail crypto trading platform in the country but is now facing tough competition from local units of Binance and FTX.

On top of that, Coinbase expanded in India with big plans, but it faced a massive roadblock with fiat deposits days after its local operation launched earlier this year.

Meanwhile, the spot exchange has expanded into the lucrative crypto derivatives market and recently launched its first Bitcoin derivatives product targeting retail traders. Further, it decided to shut down its professional trading platform, Coinbase Pro, and merge all the services on one platform.