Coinbase to acquire Skew crypto data analytics platform

Some of Skew’s institutional clients include One River Asset Management and Susquehanna International Group.

United States cryptocurrency giant Coinbase has acquired institutional-grade blockchain data analytics platform Skew.

Greg Tusar, vice president of institutional products at Coinbase, announced the news Friday, stating that the new acquisition will help customers make more informed trading decisions by using real-time data analytics.

“We’re excited to integrate skew’s data analytics platform with Coinbase Prime, allowing our customers to track cryptocurrency spot and derivatives markets in real-time. With skew, we’ll arm professional traders with dynamic, aggregated market data, presented in a highly actionable format, all within our market leading prime brokerage,” Tusar noted.

The acquisition is part of Coinbase’s broader strategy to serve institutional clients. According to Tusar, the exchange will continue to serve Skew’s institutional customers, which include One River Asset Management and Susquehanna International Group.

“While joining Coinbase represents an unparalleled opportunity for skew’s continued growth, we remain acutely focused on supporting our clients and working with our ecosystem partners. We believe our client commitment and offering will only be further enhanced by partnering with Coinbase,” Skew wrote in a Friday blog post.

The company noted that Coinbase has been a Skew client since it launched Skew Analytics two years ago. “We have not only developed a strong, positive relationship with the Coinbase team but have witnessed first-hand their impressive product-led culture, focus on compliance and commitment to the institutional space,” the firm said.

Headquartered in London, Skew was co-founded in 2018 by CEO Emmanuel Goh and chief operating officer Tim Noat with a mission to make crypto markets more transparent and drive institutional adoption. The company has seen rapid growth, accumulating more than 100 customers so far. Skew also established a bench with a mix of traditional financial services and crypto expertise with executives coming from major U.S. institutions such as JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Citi.

The news comes weeks after Coinbase went public on Nasdaq with a direct listing of its COIN shares. Shortly after the listing on April 14, several Coinbase executives, including CEO Brian Armstrong and chief financial officer Alesia Haas, sold hundreds of thousands of COIN shares, netting millions of dollars.

Coinbase was actively acquiring companies before going public, though. In January 2021, Coinbase acquired Bison Trails, a fully managed blockchain infrastructure provider, in order to secure a “foundational element” within its growing ecosystem of products. The deal reportedly cost Coinbase around $80 million. Previously, the firm acquired trading execution startup Routefire to further improve its Coinbase Prime suite of tools and services.

This story is developing and will be updated.