Coinbase was founded in July 2011 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam.[3] Blockchain.info co-founder Ben Reeves was part of the original founding team but later parted ways with Armstrong due to a difference in how the Coinbase wallet should operate.[4] The remaining founding team enrolled in the Summer 2012 Y Combinator startup incubator program. In October 2012, the company launched the services to buy and sell bitcoin through bank transfers.[5] In May 2013, the company received a US$5 million Series A investment led by Fred Wilson from the venture capital firm Union Square Ventures.[6] In December 2013, the company received a US$25 million investment, from the venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures (USV) and Ribbit Capital.[7]
In 2014, the company grew to one million users, acquired the blockchain explorer service Blockr and the web bookmarking company Kippt, secured insurance covering the value of bitcoin stored on their servers, and launched the vault system for secure bitcoin storage.[8][9][10] Throughout 2014, the company also formed partnerships with Overstock, Dell, Expedia, Dish Network, Time Inc. to power accepting bitcoin payments.[11][12][13][14][15] The company also added bitcoin payment processing capabilities to the traditional payment companies Stripe, Braintree, and PayPal.[16]
In January 2015, the company received a US$75 million investment, led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, the New York Stock Exchange, USAA, and several banks.[17] Later in January, the company launched a U.S.-based bitcoin exchange for professional traders called Coinbase Exchange.[18] Coinbase began to offer services in Canada in 2015, but in July 2016, Coinbase announced it would halt services in August after the closure of their Canadian online payments service provider Vogogo.[19]
In May 2016, the company rebranded the Coinbase Exchange, changing the name to Global Digital Asset Exchange (GDAX)[20] and offering Ether, the value token of Ethereum, for trade to professionals,[21] and in July 2016, they added retail support for Ether.[22]
In January and then March 2017, Coinbase obtained the BitLicense and licensed to trade in Ethereum and Litecoin from the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS).[23][24] In November 2017, Coinbase was order by the US Internal Revenue Service to report any users who had at least $20,000 in transactions in a year.[25]
On February 23 2018, Coinbase told around 13,000 affected customers that the company would be providing their taxpayer ID, name, birth date, address, and historical transaction records from 2013-2015 to the IRS within 21 days.[26]