Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc. announced today that it has acquired One River Digital Asset Management, an institutional digital asset management company registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in the company’s latest expansion of services.

One River Digital Asset Management is a subsidiary of One River Asset Management, which was founded in 2013 by Chief Executive Eric Peters, who will remain as CEO of the new company formed by the acquisition, Coinbase Asset Management. The newly formed company will be a wholly owned independent company, Coinbase said.

One River acts as an investment adviser and digital asset manager for banks, financial services and other institutional clients. It has worked with Coinbase in the past, using products from the company such as Coinbase Prime, which is an advanced trading platform for managing crypto portfolios. Coinbase said in a statement that it and ORDAM “share an ethos grounded in prudent risk management.”

This acquisition comes at a time when crypto markets have been in a state of great volatility and the industry has been shaken by bankruptcies from “crypto winter” and the collapse of crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange FTX Trading Ltd. The news comes shortly after Coinbase and many other crypto businesses cut ties with crypto-friendly Silvergate Bank, which is having financial trouble.

With falling retail crypto volumes, Coinbase has been looking to expand its services beyond just providing a crypto exchange. Recently the company launched Base, a developer-friendly Layer 2 blockchain designed to provide better access to the company’s own products and bring more adoption for the industry as part of that expansion.

“This is about wanting to bring more institutional capital into the world of crypto,” Greg Tusar, Coinbase’s head of institutional product, told Bloomberg. “We expect to build — on the other side of this crypto winter — an awesome asset-management business.”

Image: Pixabay