This week will see not one but two flagship American crypto brands open exchanges offshore. Coinbase confirmed that institutional users will begin trading on its new Bermuda-based operation today, while Fortune Crypto’s Leo Schwartz had the exclusive this morning that the Winklevoss twins are opening up shop in Singapore. This is big news for the crypto world, so it’s worth assessing what it means—and what it doesn’t.
What the launch of the offshore operations does not mean is that Coinbase and Gemini, which have been fixtures of the crypto scene for a decade, are turning their back on the U.S. Yes, the decision to open overseas came partly in response to the hostile regulatory climate at home, but neither company has taken any serious steps to pull up stakes altogether. And why would they? Most of their customers are here, and the vast majority of their revenue comes from the U.S., which remains—for now at least—the most important financial center in the world. Things would have to get much, much worse to make the likes of Coinbase quit the country altogether.
