Coinbase has acquired Earn.com, a business that allows users to get paid in digital currency when they respond to emails and complete certain tasks, Coinbase co-founder and CEO, Brian Armstrong, said in a blog post.
Earn.com co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Balaji Srinivasan, who was previously general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, will join Coinbase as chief technology officer, the San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange said.
“We’re going to be doubling down on the Earn business within Coinbase, as they have built a paid email product that is arguably one of the earliest practical blockchain applications to achieve meaningful traction,” Armstrong said.
Srinivasan said in a separate blog post that Earn.com is a cash-flow positive business with a multimillion dollar revenue run rate and "hundreds of thousands" of users. As part of Coinbase, Srinivasan said Earn.com will continue to operate as a standalone business but will work to scale its model across Coinbase's user base.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Srinivasan said in his post that "the total value of cash, cryptocurrency, and equity returned to our shareholders is now in excess of the capital invested in the company."
By Siranush Ghazanchyan