Crypto exchange Coinbase is now valued at $8 billion after a big funding boost

One of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges, the U.S.-based Coinbase, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $300 million in a new round of financing.

The round, led by Tiger Global Management, values the company at more than $8 billion.

Y Combinator Continuity, Wellington Management, Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain also contributed to the funding round, among others.

Coinbase says it will use the funds to accelerate global expansion, introduce more crypto assets to its platform and continue development of utility applications in the space, such as its recently announced USDC stablecoin and the Coinbase Wallet. Finally, the company plans to bring more institutional funds into the crypto space.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

"We see Coinbase’s growth as validation that the ecosystem will only continue to grow in size, influence and impact — ultimately ushering in a more open financial system for the world," the company said in a blog post.

Coinbase has been growing like a weed when Bitcoin and Ethereum prices were raging early this year. But even when the prices pulled back, Coinbase continued to expand, having recently introduced a stablecoin, adding new cryptocurrencies to its platform, and launching new tools for institutional and professional investors.

The result of that expansion is that $8 billion valuation -- as TechCrunch notes, it's a huge increase from the $1.6 billion the company was valued in August 2017.

Disclosure: The author of this text owns, or has recently owned, a number of cryptocurrencies, including BTC and ETH.