Capital Markets • April 30, 2021, 8:01AM EDT
UPDATED: June 4, 2021, 12:52PM EDT

Coinbase set to acquire data and analytics platform Skew for undisclosed sum

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Crypto exchange Coinbase announced Friday that it will acquire data and analytics provider Skew for an undisclosed sum, its first acquisition deal following its blockbuster direct listing earlier this month.

Coinbase, which began trading publicly on April 14, will plug Skew's data -- which spans derivatives and spot volumes, charts, and information around bitcoin's volatility -- into its institutional prime brokerage platform, Coinbase Prime.

Skew's tools will compliment Coinbase's existing institutional product offering, which covers a range of products in custody and over-the-counter trading. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter. 

"We know that access to high-quality data is essential for institutions assessing investments in crypto assets," Greg Tusar, VP of institutional product at the exchange operator said in a blog post. Coinbase acquired Tagomi last year in a deal that beefed up its suite of institutional products. Filings show Tagomi was valued at $77.2 million at the time of the deal. 

Coinbase counts more than 7,000 institutions as clients with $122 billion in total assets, according to Tusar. 

Such a deal reflects a broader M&A wave sweeping crypto. PayPal acquired crypto custody firm Curv earlier this year and Galaxy Digital is rumored to have held talks with Coinbase rival BitGo. Competition in the crypto prime brokerage market will continue to fuel this wave, as noted by Eric Risley, managing partner at Architect Partners, in a recent blog. 

"The full set of capabilities are soon to be table stakes and are a necessity for institutional adoption of crypto assets," he wrote. "This is likely to be an area of significant M&A over the next 12 months with both crypto and fiat-native firms participating."

Earlier this year, Coinbase announced its acquisition of crypto infrastructure firm Bison Trails in a bid to build out a business akin to Amazon Web Services. Coinbase said in January that it acquired the trade execution platform Routefire.