Coinbase Seeking to Expand Bitcoin Services to Latin America

Coinbase is seeking to expand its bitcoin buying and selling services to new Asian and Latin American markets in 2016.

In interview at Money20/20, product manager Adam White indicated that the startup, which has so far raised more than $106m in venture funding, aims to be operational in 40 countries next year, and that these regions would be primary areas of focus.

In September, Coinbase announced its first launch in Asia with an expansion to Singapore, though it has yet to make its services available in Latin America.

White said new announcements could come as soon as December or January, and that news was dependant on Coinbase’s ability to meet local regulatory compliance.

He told CoinDesk:

"We continue to look at Coinbase as a infrastructure, providing programmatic access to buying and selling."

Elsewhere, White suggested that Coinbase is not looking to launch a private blockchain product for enterprise businesses, as its US competitor itBit did in August.

White said Coinbase was likely to continue to emphasize strategic partnerships with consumer-facing payments companies, as well as firms that have made public investments in the startup.

Coinbase investors include BBVA Ventures, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and USAA, the latter of which recently launched a pilot program that made select Coinbase services available to customers.

The expansion estimate is the latest for the San Francisco company, which had made international expansion a cornerstone of its goals for 2015.

At the time of Coinbase’s $75m Series C round, announced in January, CEO Brian Armstrong forecasted that the company could be available in as many as 30 countries by the year’s end.

Today, Coinbase is available in 32 countries.

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