Coinbase Raises $100 Mln to Expand Staff as Bitcoin Has Netscape Moment

Major cryptocurrency wallet and exchange Coinbase has announced it has raised $100 mln in Series D funding.

In a blog post Thursday, CEO Brian Armstrong said the investment represented a “major milestone” for the company, with resources principally going into customer support improvements.

“Coinbase experienced unprecedented growth over the last year, and we have now exchanged over $25 bln USD of digital currency for our customers. We’ll be using this new funding to continue scaling even further,” he wrote.

The round was led by IVP, with additional participation from familiar names including Spark Capital and Tim Draper’s Draper Associates.

Coinbase had signaled its desire to address customer support capabilities in previous months as a huge surge in user numbers caught it by surprise both technically and in terms of human resources.

In July, the service was adding the equivalent of 33,000 users per day, reports stated.

Funds will also contribute to the opening of a New York office for Coinbase’s sister exchange GDAX, along with investment in the Toshi Ethereum network browser.

“Digital currencies are having their ‘Netscape’ moment,” Armstrong continued.

“The pace of innovation has been accelerating and we are now seeing exciting projects and companies being built on top of digital currencies.”

Coinbase in June announced it was aiming to raise a total of $1 bln in future investment rounds.