Announcing a Global Partnership with Block’s Bitkey Wallet

Coinbase is working to update the financial system that was built over 100 years ago by using crypto to provide people with more economic freedom and opportunity. To advance this purpose, Coinbase is building the most trusted crypto products and services, and supporting other builders to bring over 1 billion people into crypto.  

Today we are excited to announce an international partnership spanning 6 continents with Bitkey, the self-custody bitcoin wallet built by Block, which includes a mobile app, a hardware device and a set of recovery tools. Bitkey’s mission is to empower the next 100 million people to truly own and manage their money with bitcoin, without the friction and anxiety that has historically existed around the transition to self-custody and true ownership. This alliance is a key step towards our goal of powering the bitcoin economy.

Coinbase Pay offers a simple and secure way for users to fund their accounts with crypto within apps, wallets, or marketplaces. By accepting your users’ preferred payment methods already saved in their Coinbase accounts, users enjoy seamless fiat-to-crypto onramps and businesses benefit from increased conversion rates and product adoption.

In parallel, we are looking forward to Bitkey's global beta program which also launches sign ups today. Customers participating in the global beta program will see a game-changing feature that allows you to effortlessly move your bitcoin from centralized exchanges to the secure Bitkey self-custody wallet. When Bitkey moves into its wider public launch later this year, customers will also be able to seamlessly buy bitcoin and initiate the transfer of their bitcoin bought on Coinbase to their self-custody Bitkey wallet, all within the Bitkey wallet using Coinbase Pay. All of this is done with clear and transparent pricing, which means customers will easily understand the true cost of their bitcoin purchase, which includes both fiat payment method fees and the price of bitcoin in relation to their local fiat currency. Customers can register for Bitkey’s global beta program starting today at bitkey.build/beta. 

We intend to make this feature available to joint Bitkey and Coinbase customers in multiple global markets across six continents including the US, Canada, the UK, Brazil, and Australia, among other global markets where Coinbase and Bitkey serve customers. 

This is another signal of momentum as Coinbase continues to expand its reach in international markets as we recently completed an 8 week international sprint. 

Lindsey Grossman, Business Lead for Bitkey, expressed her enthusiasm for Bitkey and Coinbase’s integrated partnership, stating, "At Bitkey, we’re building a self-custody bitcoin wallet designed to empower the next 100 million people to truly own and manage their bitcoin - safely and easily. Partners play a key role in bringing self-custody to a wider group of people around the world, and we are incredibly proud to have partnered with leading companies like Coinbase to make self-custody both secure and easy to use.” 

The partnership was established guided by essential criteria, including price transparency, security standards, global reach, and the availability of fiat payment methods that matter most to customers around the world. Our alignment with Bitkey on these crucial aspects is what makes this partnership particularly meaningful and exciting.

The companies also plan to work together to make it easy and secure to also sell bitcoin and convert back to local fiat currencies through the integration in the future. Additionally, as part of the partnership, Bitkey and Coinbase are working on a joint offer for Coinbase One and Bitkey customers to enjoy later this year, in addition to the product integration which is available to all Coinbase global customers who use Bitkey.

We're passionately aligned with Bitkey's vision of making self-custody more accessible and empowering individuals to take true ownership of their bitcoin. Our shared dedication to secure and easy-to-use customer experiences, global reach, and transparency forms the bedrock of this partnership.

We are looking forward to sharing more updates regarding this partnership and its roll out internationally in the future.