The humbling of Coinbase

moneycontrol.com:

David Yaffe-Bellany and Mike Isaac

Brian Armstrong, CEO of the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, traveled across the world to make an announcement in early April: Coinbase was bringing crypto to India. In an auditorium in Bangalore, Armstrong, wearing a type of loose buttoned shirt popular in India, said Coinbase planned to set up a hub of 1,000 employees there by the end of this year.

The company was investing in Indian startups and allowing local customers to buy and sell digital currencies on its exchange. For Coinbase, it was a chance to transform finance in a country of more than 1 billion people and lure new customers from across Asia. “Namaste,” Armstrong declared. “We come with humility and respect.”

But that week, Coinbase got some bad news. A government-backed group issued a statement suggesting that the company would be unable to use a crucial payments platform — a system that was supposed to allow Coinbase customers to convert their rupees into virtual currencies such as Bitcoin and Ether. Not long after its grand opening, Coinbase halted much of its trading service in India.

Coinbase rose to prominence as one of the first major crypto companies, a gateway to the chaotic world of digital assets for amateur investors. But as it has grown from plucky startup to publicly traded company, its status as an industry leader has been threatened by a series of missteps and a steep decline in the crypto market over the past six months.

Coinbase’s fumbled start in India, a largely untapped market for crypto, was emblematic of failures that have unsettled employees and sent the company’s stock price spiraling. In June, Coinbase laid off 18 percent of its staff.

For years, Coinbase has aspired to become the