Crypto exchange Coinbase shuts Chicago division

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is closing its Chicago division, known as Coinbase Markets, CoinDesk reported.

Introduced last May, Coinbase Markets was focused on developing advanced electronic markets technologies such as matching engines and high-frequency trading for cryptocurrency.

At the time of launch, Coinbase had said that the new division will introduce new features like low latency performance, on-premise datacenter colocation services, institutional connectivity and access, and settlement and clearing services.

“These additions will allow for a more efficient price discovery process to occur, creating tighter markets, deeper liquidity, and increased certainty of execution,” it added.

However, the company is now winding down the matching engine project with similar work being done in its San Francisco office.

“To become the ‘Google of crypto’ we have to be comfortable making big bets. Some of them will be audacious and some of them won’t work out,” a Coinbase spokesperson told CoinDesk.

Product lead Paul Bauerschmidt (formerly of CME) and engineering head Derek Groothius, who led the Chicago office, will be leaving the company. Some employees unrelated with the matching engine work would continue working at Coinbase.

The company said that it would try to relocate some of the employees associated with the matching engine project to San Francisco.

A Coinbase spokesperson said that the company will retain the intellectual property and could integrate the technology developed in the Chicago division into its technology, adding:

“The team built some amazing technology and it could be used to influence the future development of our matching engine.”