Coinbase's Emilie Choi: $300 Million Raise Was 'For a Rainy Day'

With its latest funding round, Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange turned Silicon Valley unicorn, is amassing a "War chest" for a "Rainy day."

At least, that's how Coinbase's vice president of corporate and business development, Emilie Choi, described the $300 million the company recently raised in a Series E round with investors such as Tiger Global Management and Polychain, the latter of which is headed by former Coinbase employee Olaf Carlson-Wee.

Namely, the leading opportunity that Choi sees is adding support for new assets across Coinbase platforms, eventually "Thousands" of prospective cryptos.

Beyond the Circle-issued stablecoin that Coinbase already supports, USDC, other fiat-pegged assets may also be under consideration.

When asked if Coinbase might someday list initial coin offerings, tokens launched to fundraise for blockchain projects, Choi replied the company didn't want to "Close the door" to any opportunity down the road. "All the priorities right now are focused on adding assets, adding international rails, all that kind of stuff." she said.

Venture capitalist Lasse Clausen, co-founder of the Berlin-based fund 1kx, told CoinDesk this raise was particularly impressive since Coinbase reportedly experienced a dramatic drop in active users over the last two quarters.

Overall, the research firm Diar found Coinbase's dollar volumes fell 80 percent since last year.

"The revenue and active users of Coinbase have been tanking since December 2017," Clausen said.

That's why Choi said Coinbase is raising now and playing "The long game." The proceeds will also help fund international expansion, she said.

Coinbase is hiring for several roles in the new London and Tokyo offices.