It’s official: popular cryptocurrency exchange desk Coinbase is now an $8 billion company.

In an announcement, Coinbase COO Asiff Hirji revealed the company has completed an additional $300 million investment round at a valuation of $8 billion to spearhead the adoption of cryptocurrency and digital assets.

The Series E equity round was led by Tiger Global Management, with participation from other notable names like Y Combinator’s Continuity fund, Wellington Management, Andreessen Horowitz, and Polychain Capital.

As part of the deal, Coinbase plans to use the $300 million cash injection to speed up its global expansion by building infrastructure between fiat and cryptocurrency in regulated markets around the world.

Other efforts include building new products and integrations, adding new assets to its list of supported cryptocurrencies, and generating further institutional interest in blockchain tech.

Rumors of Coinbase’s deal with Tiger Global first began circulating in early October.

Indeed, Recode reported the partnership could generate up to $500 million of investment for the cryptocurrency exchange desk, at a valuation of $8 billion. The actual investment round turned out to be a little smaller, but the fact remains: Coinbase is now valued at $8 billion.

In case you were wondering how Tiger Global and Coinbase came at the $8 billion valuation: despite the massive downswing in the cryptocurrency market since the beginning of the year, Bloomberg reports Coinbase is expecting to net nearly $1.3 billion in revenue in 2018 alone.

By contrast, Coinbase’s revenue stood at just $17 million in 2016. By 2017 though, the exchange had recorded a massive profit of $380 million.

It’s been 11 years since Satoshi Nakamoto unleashed Bitcoin into the wild

Eleven years ago today, Satoshi Nakamoto — the person, or persons, responsible for creating Bitcoin — unleashed the cryptocurrency ’s white paper into the wild.

Published on October 31, 2008, the white paper, officially titled, ‘ Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System ,’ described a novel, immutable, decentralized peer-to-peer network that could track and verify transactions while also preventing double-spending and producing a transparent record for anyone to verify in almost real-time.

Nakamoto began by outlining how e-commerce relied almost exclusively on financial institutions acting as trusted third parties to process payments. Although the system worked well enough for most transactions, it still suffered from the inherent weaknesses of this trust-based model, the white paper says.

“What is needed is an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party,” it reads, adding, “Transactions that are computationally impractical to reverse would protect sellers from fraud, and routine escrow mechanisms could easily be implemented to protect buyers.”

Ultimately, Nakamoto wanted to bypass the mainstream financial system, removing the need for intermediaries and wholly counteract the centralization of financial power.

And while we still don’t know who Nakamoto is, or was, the white paper set the scene for an innovative payment network, its underlying blockchain technology, and some 1,600-plus altcoins that have emerged since.

A lot has happened in 11 years, and it’s totally impossible to say whether Nakamoto would be happy with the way the industry has evolved.

While Bitcoin is significantly more well-known than it was over a decade ago, it isn’t quite mainstream. Some would even say it’s deviated from Nakamoto‘s initial vision after piquing the interest of mainstream financial heavyweights, who are seemingly desperate to leverage blockchain technology to maximize efficiency and cut costs.

Notorious for its volatility, Bitcoin‘s price has certainly provided plenty of entertainment over the years. It’s gone from trading for $0.003 in March 2010, to surpassing $20,000 during December 2017’s famous bull run.

Other milestones that deserve to be highlighted for the purpose of this piece include Bitcoin ‘s cumulative transaction fees surpassing $1 billion in mid-October, and it mined 85 percent of its total supply limit in early August.

Bitcoin is a huge contradiction: on the one hand, it’s enshrined in the logic that comes with mathematics and cryptography, and on the other, it’s wildly unpredictable and mysterious.

While it’s impossible to predict the future , it’s fair to say that the cryptocurrency will continue to inspire, enrage, and challenge those who pay attention , and I’m certain that this time next year, we’ll be celebrating the 12th anniversary of its white paper ‘s publication date.

Meet 3 of the blockchain experts speaking at Hard Fork Decentralized

At our upcoming blockchain event , we’ve invited some inspiring speakers with a wide array of expertise. As the blockchain industry finds itself with a lot of unanswered questions that will determine the next 10 years, it’s more vital than ever to bring expert opinions into the mix. Each of our speakers will offer something new to the discussion, and together we’ll explore the future of blockchain.

Here are just a few experts speaking at our event :

Ayelet Noff, Co-CEO and Founder of Blonde 2.0

Ayelet is known as one of the most successful women in the blockchain industry, having founded the top blockchain PR agency in the world. She also has a background in content and used to be a contributing author at TNW.

She’s previously written about how to publicize a blockchain startup, and has been featured in Forbes as a “female rockstar leading the crypto scene.”

At Hard Fork Decentralized, you can expect her PR expertise to shape how she sees the future of the industry.

Margarita Khartanovich, Editor-in-Chief at Binary District

Binary District aims to debunk myths about disruptive tech – which certainly keeps the company busy, considering how disruptive blockchain has been. Margarita will discuss how media plays a role in blockchain adoption, and delve deeper into the crypto media landscape of the future.

Margarita spoke at our flagship TNW Conference in May. Along with Marloes Pomp and Kavita Gupta, they discussed the challenges we must overcome to achieve mass adoption. You can watch the full talk right here:

Cassidy Robertson, Product Owner at CryptoKitties

Cassidy works on the well-known CryptoKitties , and has spoken about the company’s wildlife preservation projects. She believes that blockchain can be a great way to increase transparency and reduce poaching, therefore reducing the threat of extinction for endangered species.

At Hard Fork Decentralized, you can expect to hear more about how CryptoKitties empowers users with blockchain, and how the technology can help solve some of humanity’s largest issues.

If you want to hear these blockchain experts speak, come join us! You can secure your ticket right here . Don’t forget that as a woman interested in blockchain, you can get an 85-percent discount on your ticket.

See you in London on December 12-14!