Coinbase Has Acquired A Major Digital Asset Management Firm

One River Digital Asset Management, or ORDAM, a hedge fund that specializes in cryptocurrencies, is now under the American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.

Coinbase announced in a March 3 blog post that One River Digital will become Coinbase Asset Management, “an independent business and wholly-owned subsidiary” of the crypto exchange. 

One River Digital has previously taken investments from Coinbase to expand its operations. ORDAM is also a registered investment adviser with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

ORDAM’s Team Joins Coinbase

Regarding the acquisition, Coinbase states that the exchange and ORDAM “share an ethos grounded in prudent risk management, a trait which has enabled both firms to successfully navigate the recent market turmoil” while adding: 

“Culturally, our two organizations are strongly aligned on pursuing the opportunity in digital assets with an uncompromising priority on safety and soundness.”

The further developments involve One River Digital’s team as the part of the cryptocurrency exchange as well as Peters would be continuing to lead the rebranded business. The discourse implied that there would be “minimal disruption to current business activities” during the transition.

In order to give institutional-grade wealth managers an exclusive platform to make investments in digital assets and take part in related activities, Coinbase and One River Digital Assessment Management partnered last year.

The CEO of Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, recommended Bitcoin (BTC) in January as a better long-term option to the previous proposals for a unified currency from Brazil and Argentina. Armstrong noted: “Wonder if they would consider moving to Bitcoin – that would probably be the right long-term bet.” 

He also revealed the rationale for delisting Binance USD just a few days ago. He clarified that the choice was made because of concerns about the token’s availability. Armstrong stated: 

“The reason we did that was that Paxos, the issuer of BUSD, had been ordered to stop minting it, so we were concerned about liquidity issues for our customers.”