Google partners with Coinbase to accept crypto payments for cloud services and drive Web3 innovation

Early this year, the Google Cloud division disclosed it was assembling a team of people to help its clients meet their cryptocurrency needs. It now appears the tech giant is making good on its promise.

Today, Google announced it has joined forces with crypto exchange giant Coinbase to allow crypto payments for cloud services. Google said it will start accepting crypto payments for cloud services early next year, according to a Tuesday press release.

Good made the announcement at Google’s Cloud Next conference, saying that it will receive crypto payment via integration with crypto exchange Coinbase. According to the report, crypto payments will initially be rolled out to a handful of customers involved in the Web3 industry. Google will also use Coinbase’s custody service, Coinbase Prime.

Google said the long-term partnership between the two companies is aimed at better serving the growing Web3 ecosystem and its developers.

“We want to make building in Web3 faster and easier, and this partnership with Coinbase helps developers get one step closer to that goal,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud.

As part of the partnership, Google Cloud is positioned to enable select customers, starting with those in the Web3 ecosystem, to pay for its cloud services via select cryptocurrencies. Powered by Coinbase Commerce—which enables merchants globally to accept cryptocurrency payments in a decentralized way—the new payments experience will benefit Google Cloud’s customers and partners by increasing the optionality of payments for Google Cloud services.

“We are excited Google Cloud has selected Coinbase to help bring Web3 to a new set of users and provide powerful solutions to developers,” said Brian Armstrong, Co-founder and CEO of Coinbase. “With more than 100 million verified users and 14,500 institutional clients, Coinbase has spent more than a decade building industry-leading products on top of blockchain technology. We could not ask for a better partner to help execute our vision of building a trusted bridge into the Web3 ecosystem.”

“We want to make building in Web3 faster and easier, and this partnership with Coinbase helps developers get one step closer to that goal,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud. “We’re proud Coinbase has chosen Google Cloud as its strategic cloud partner, and we’re ready to serve the thriving global Web3 customer and partner ecosystem. Our focus is making it frictionless for all customers to take advantage of our scalability, reliability, security, and data services, so they can focus on innovation in the Web3 space.”

In addition, Google will use Coinbase Prime, for institutional crypto services, like secure custody and reporting.

“We believe more partnerships with traditional players will follow. As the crypto economy expands longer term, Coinbase will look more like an integrated digital asset enabler than a pure-play crypto exchange,” said Owen Lau, analyst at Oppenheimer.

Founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, the San Francisco, California-based Coinbase is a digital currency wallet and platform where merchants and consumers can transact with new digital currencies like bitcoin, ethereum, and litecoin. Since its inception nine years ago, Coinbase has raised a total of $847.3 million in funding over 14 rounds. Its latest funding was raised on December 21, 2018, from a secondary market round.