Coinbase will reportedly no longer acquire the Brazilian cryptocurrency company, 2TM Group. The merger and acquisition talks between the two companies have been ongoing since late last year, and the companies were in the final stages of completing the process.
2TM Group is the parent company of Mercado Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency exchange in Brazil. 2TM Group ended the acquisition talks barely a week after Coinbase appointed Fabio Tonneto Plein as the head of its operations in Brazil.
Coinbase will no longer acquire 2TM Group
According to a Bloomberg report, people close to the matter had confirmed that the acquisition would no longer happen as planned. Coinbase had declared interest in buying a minority share or controlling interest in 2TM. The acquisition talks commenced in late 2021, and the deal was nearing completion.
2TM had engaged the services of JPMorgan Chase & Co. to offer advice regarding this deal in March last year. It remains unclear why these acquisition talks have ended. Whether the two companies will go back to the negotiating table to alter the terms of the deal and reach an agreement is also unclear.
In December last year, 2TM secured $50 million in funding from various investors in the crypto industry. The funds were geared toward boosting the company’s expansion to other countries based in Latin America. The funding round enabled 2TM to acquire a controlling stake in CriptoLoja, a digital asset exchange based in Portugal.
Coinbase’s efforts toward global expansion
Coinbase is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States. The exchange underwent a direct listing on NASDAQ in April last year as its market cap came in at $27.5 billion. The exchange has shown commitment to expanding its global operations and attracting a large user base.
According to the exchange’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, the number of cryptocurrency investors globally could hit 1 billion over the next one to two decades. Coinbase was committed to being part of this growth.
Besides 2TM, Coinbase is also in talks with BtcTurk, a cryptocurrency exchange in Turkey, for a $3.2 billion acquisition. This deal is also yet to be finalized. In March, Coinbase announced plans to open a marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The marketplace is currently in a beta phase, and users allowed into the beta testing phase can access it without paying any transaction fees. However, this will only be possible for a limited time.
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