Coinbase streamlines international compliance with Zip

The challenge

As the most trusted place for people to buy, sell, and trade crypto, Coinbase aims to provide an open financial system for the world.

But unscalable tools and processes threatened to stall their meteoric growth worldwide. Limited spend visibility and slow cycle-times were increasingly at odds with the company’s dynamic and regulatory-intensive environment in the international financial ecosystem. As Coinbase transitioned from startup to a global leader preparing for an IPO, procurement inefficiencies and compliance issues threatened to impede their path.

“There were gaps in the process, a lot of stakeholders, and a lot of noise,” explains Roselle Lagunzad, Coinbase Procure to Pay Director. “Requests were taking longer than they should and there was confusion as to where the requests stood.”

The solution

Recognizing the need for a cohesive procurement strategy, Coinbase turned to Zip. Zip streamlined Coinbase’s procurement operations by integrating disparate systems into a singular, efficient workflow.

This not only facilitated rapid value realization but also prepared Coinbase to tackle its expanding regulatory and compliance obligations with newfound agility.

“We were growing and expanding internationally,” explained Cindy Yan, Coinbase VP of Source to Pay and Supplier Management. “Doing business in India, Brazil, Israel, Manilla—places with different regulatory environments. It was getting more complex and there was greater scrutiny due to some of the turbulence in our market.”

How did Zip fare? “Global compliance loves this tool,” says Lagunzad. “All of our regulators and compliance teams, during regulatory audits, love the tool because everything is trackable and they can see everything they need.”

Zip is built to streamline every compliance process, not just by consolidating all purchase data—but by serving that data up any which way it’s needed, through powerful reporting functionality. In other words, it was the right tool at the right time.

Global compliance loves this tool. All of our regulators and compliance teams love the tool because everything is trackable and they can see everything they need.

The result

The impact of Zip on Coinbase’s procurement operations was both immediate and profound. Coinbase had the system up and running in just 90 days despite leveraging custom integrations.

Soon, Coinbase witnessed a significant transformation: resolution times were cut, and vendor onboarding became faster and less cumbersome. Prior to Zip, Coinbase’s time to resolution per ticket was fairly high.

“We were at about 45 days and wanted to cut it in half,” said Cindy Yan. “Zip was an invaluable part of reaching that goal.”

What Zip has done for Coinbase says a lot. But what Zip hasn’t done yet may say more. “We intend to make the move from Coupa to Zip for payment,” said Yan.



The proven success of the Intake-to-Procure engagement has convinced Coinbase that Zip is the right partner for the entire procurement journey. “Zip is just so easy and customizable and gives us so much control,” sums up Yan. “And they work with us to give us the fast, responsive help we need...they really listen to their customers.”