By Kayvon Pirestani, Head of APAC Institutional Coverage
One of the latest companies to diversify their corporate balance sheets with crypto is Meitu, Inc. The Hong Kong-listed (1357-HK) consumer tech company, known for its wildly popular selfie and photo community apps used by millions around the globe, recently purchased both Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Coinbase Institutional was selected as the sole partner for both trade execution and custody on both their initial and second allocations, for a combined total of US$90m of BTC and ETH. Meitu was able to utilize our sophisticated algorithmic execution and smart order routing tools, along with the execution planning services of our high-touch agency-only OTC trading desk to execute these transactions across multiple marketplaces with minimal market impact. The purchased assets were then transferred into the secure offline cold storage of Coinbase Custody, a qualified custodian providing maximum security and meeting the industry’s highest regulatory standards.
Meitu joins a long list of companies that Coinbase Institutional continues to help diversify with crypto including Microstrategy and other corporations. However, Meitu has made a unique case, not seen widely yet, on allocating a significant portion to ETH.
“Cryptocurrencies are not new but acquiring cryptocurrencies as a listed company, while ensuring the security of the transaction and storage as well as compliance of various regulations and audit requirements, is still like navigating through uncharted waters,” said Gary Ngan, Chief Financial Officer of Meitu. “We are grateful that the Coinbase Institutional team has made this a very smooth sail with their cutting-edge technology, professional execution, and undivided client focus.”
We believe that Coinbase is one of the most trusted places for companies to trade and store digital assets with good security measures set up, leveraging years of experience managing our treasury position in digital assets. We’ve used this experience to build a new resource to help answer the tough questions corporate leaders may be asking. In this detailed FAQ, we answer tax, accounting, regulatory, and compliance questions as well as including a set of talking points for investor relations.
To learn more about Coinbase Institutional, prime broker services, white label brokerage services, custody, or OTC trading, click here.
To read more about the rise of the Ethereum economy, read more here.
was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
