Mobile Payments / Cryptocurrency Master Coinbase Worth $8 Billion if New Deal Goes Off

While the cryptocurrency market itself has been in one serious state of flux that’s been going since last December, the cryptocurrency exchanges have been seeing some likewise flux going on. A new report suggests that, with some new talks with Tiger Global on the table, Coinbase could end up valued at over $8 billion.

The reports suggest that Tiger Global is considering putting in as much as $500 million in new investment, a portion of which will be used to buy out current shareholders. Given that Coinbase was valued at $1.5 billion just last summer, this represents a substantial gain and something of a quandary for observers. This is especially true when one considers the value of cryptocurrencies—rather the steep drop in same—over the last year.

This has hit Coinbase’s primary business—trading cryptocurrencies—hard, but at the same time, Coinbase notes that it’s profitable, which might be pulling further investment in. In fact, word is the company’s planning a secondary stock sale to accommodate investors that want to cash out without having to have a lot of raw cash on hand. Interest was high, reports noted, but the finalized deal never took shape. The company also recently brought out a new plugin that would effectively allow retailers to accept cryptocurrency, a plugin that works with the popular WooCommerce platform seen in nearly a third—28 percent—of all online retailers.

Coinbase noted “When customers send money from their cryptocurrency wallet, it’s sent directly to a merchant-controlled cryptocurrency address and processed on-chain by the respective blockchain. This means merchants never have to pay transaction fees to accept payments and always remain in complete control over their funds.”

Undoubtedly, the recent sock in cryptocurrency values has hurt Coinbase, along with most any other cryptocurrency exchange around. But Coinbase was easily one of the biggest, so its ability to weather the shocks of crypto fluctuations should be enough to help carry it through. It certainly doesn’t hurt that a previous investor is coming back with fresh capital, either.

Only time will tell Coinbase’s ultimate fate, but with some signs that cryptocurrency could be coming back, a bit of diversification, and lots of investment into Coinbase itself, this may be the start of something impressive.