Coinbase Global Inc. on Tuesday confirmed its acquisition of Unbound Security, a cryptographic security startup based in Israel.
The deal not only gives Coinbase access to expertise from some of the world’s most advanced cryptographic security professionals, but also a foothold in Israel, a fast rising technology powerhouse.
Guy Peer, co-founder of Unbound Security and current Vice President of Research and Development at Coinbase, has under his belt more than 20 years of experience in cryptographic security and areas of management. Yehuda Lindell, also a co-founder of Unbound Security, has extensive research in cryptography, especially concerned with the theory of secure multi-party computation (MPC) and its application.
“Secure multi-party computation is an application of advanced mathematics to enable crypto assets to be stored, transferred and deployed more securely, easily and flexibly than ever before,” explained the announcement. MPC, according to Coinbase, combines the security of cold storage with the flexibility of a hot wallet.
Coinbase stated the Unbound Security experts would lay the foundations of a new research centre that it aims to build over time in Israel, citing “Israel as a hot bed of strong technology and cryptography talent.”
With more than 13 startups purchased this year and the establishment of talent hubs in India, Singapore, and Brazil, the development is very much part of Coinbase’s wider talent acquisition strategy covering all bases. The cryptocurrency exchange, for example, acquired India’s Agara in November to upgrade its customer support.
Coinbase is diversifying its offerings and income streams to be able to ensure more sustainable growth, in addition to geographic expansion. Since retail Monthly Transacting Users (MTUs) slid to 7.4 million from 8.8 million in Q2, Coinbase said it wanted to focus more on customer support. Coinbase’s Q3 financial results came in mixed, with £4.8 billion in cash and equivalents, including about £1.5 billion in net proceeds from the September senior notes offering.