Coinbase (COIN) announced its agreement to acquire The Clearing Company, aiming to enhance its newly launched prediction market as part of the crypto exchange’s vision to become a comprehensive platform for all trading activities.
The Clearing Company, based in San Francisco, is a startup led by Toni Gemayel, who has significant experience in the field, including serving as head of growth at prediction market Kalshi. Financial terms of the acquisition have not been revealed.
This deal, expected to finalize in January, coincides with the growing popularity of prediction markets, which now boast a weekly notional volume exceeding $4 billion based on Dune analytics data. Recently, Coinbase began allowing users to bet on real-world events in partnership with Kalshi, covering a spectrum of occurrences from political elections and economic reports to cultural events and sports.
Coinbase stated that this acquisition will introduce a talented team experienced in developing and scaling event-driven trading systems, including veterans from Polymarket, a blockchain platform, along with a former chief compliance officer from Kalshi.
Last week, the exchange revealed plans to broaden its platform’s capabilities, incorporating new cryptocurrencies, perpetual futures contracts, and stocks alongside prediction markets.
This initiative is part of its strategy to position itself as the “Everything Exchange.” Competitors like Robinhood, Kraken, and Gemini have already begun offering equity trading and prediction markets to their clients.
In August, The Clearing Company secured $15 million in a seed funding round led by Union Square Ventures, with participation from Coinbase Ventures. Last month, it filed for a license to operate a clearinghouse with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Read more: Prediction markets outperform Wall Street in forecasting inflation, according to Kalshi.
