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Coinbase has acquired crypto trade execution startup Routefire for an undisclosed sum.

Routefire announced the news on Thursday, saying that it will cease its services and join Coinbase to continue developing execution services for digital assets.

Founded in 2017, San Francisco-based Routefire claims to have the best technology to help institutional customers fill large orders at high speed and lower fees. At Coinbase, Routefire will expand the exchange’s prime brokerage business. 

Coinbase has already helped mega bitcoin buyers like MicroStrategy and One River Digital execute large trades following its acquisition of Tagomi last year. Tagomi pioneered best-execution in crypto and Coinbase acquired the firm for an estimated $70 million-$100 million in March of last year.

Routefire is Coinbase’s first acquisition of 2021. It comes at a time when bitcoin is trading around $40,000 levels, and institutional interest is rising in the crypto space.

Routefire is a seven-member team led by CEO Jason Victor, according to its website. It is not clear how much the firm has raised from venture capitalists, but its investors include Blockchain Capital, Hustle Fund, and FJ Labs, per the website.

As for Coinbase, it is one of the biggest dealmakers in the crypto space, having acquired more than 20 firms to date.

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Digital asset firm Bakkt is looking to tap into the public markets through a SPAC deal, according to a Bloomberg report. 

Bakkt, a venture by Intercontinental Exchange, is reportedly in advanced stage talks to go public through a merger with blank-check firm VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings, according to Bloomberg’s sources. The transaction, which could be announced next week, would value the merged entity at $2 billion.

Bakkt is known in the crypto market for its derivatives products, including its futures and options on bitcoin. The firm has been developing a retail app for a wide range of digital assets, spanning loyalty points and bitcoin. It has raised $300 million from investors including Galaxy Digital, Boston Consulting Group, CMT Digital Ventures, and Pantera Capital.

SPACs—special purpose acquisition companies—became red-hot in 2020. The market for SPACs has exploded over the past year. As per data compiled by Goldman Sachs at the end of last year, SPACs made up more than 52% of the more than $140 billion raised via new listings in the US.

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

December ended 2020 with the highest adjusted on-chain volume for stablecoins, according to data compiled by The Block. 

The total stablecoin volume for December was $178.34 billion, which is a 20.8% increase from the previous month. December was also $18.16 billion (11.3%) greater than the former high in September 2020. 

Tether (USDT) held 71.2% of the stablecoin volume, followed by USD Coin (USDC) at 16.2% and DAI at 6.4%.

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Quick Take

• On the back of bitcoin’s recent price run, interest in trading DeFi tokens are near lows on multiple exchanges
• DeFi tokens as a share of total trading volume on Binance have dropped from 18% in September to just 5%
• The Block examines other exchanges including Coinbase and Kraken

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Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse says the firm tried to settle with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and plans to continue settlement discussions into the new administration.

In threads of tweets on Thursday, the CEO and his general counsel Stuart Alderoty addressed questions surrounding the SEC’s unregistered securities lawsuit filed against the firm last month.

Both said things are happening behind the scenes, and that Ripple and those named in the suit are moving forward even if they’ve been relatively silent. 

“Our full legal team will announce themselves shortly and we’ll be filing our initial response to the SEC’s unproven allegations within weeks,” said Alderoty in a tweet.

“No one is being silent, nor will we give up this fight,” wrote Garlinghouse in his thread.

In his thread, Garlinghouse responded to what he felt were five key questions related to the case, touching on the lack of settlement and whether Ripple paid entities to list and use XRP. On the first count, Garlinghouse indicated that Ripple is still pursuing the settlement route.

“Can’t get into specifics, but know we tried — and will continue to try with the new administration — to resolve this in a way so the XRP community can continue innovating, consumers are protected and orderly markets are preserved,” he tweeted.

As for exchanges, he did not clarify whether or not Ripple incentivized venues to list XRP,  but said because XRP is decentralized, Ripple has no power over which venues list or delist the asset. In the days since the SEC suit was made public, many venues have halted transactions or delisted XRP.

On the consumer side, he said Ripple lawfully incentivized some customers and first movers to use the network, which according to Garlinghouse is “building a payments network 101.”

Garlinghouse also touched on the recent lawsuit from Ripple investor Tetragon, which led the firm’s Series C round. Tetragon has filed to require Ripple to redeem its Series C preferred stock. 

“We’re disappointed that Tetragon (who owns 1.5% of Ripple) is seeking to unfairly advantage itself through the SEC’s allegations,” said Garlinghouse.

Meanwhile, the SEC’s case against Ripple will move forward in February, when both parties meet for a pretrial conference on Feb. 22. Their joint letter describing the facts of the case is due Feb. 15. 

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.