Well this is another move by coinbase to get acquired. They are heavily working towards getting an exit strategy and finding a bigger company to overpay them. Facebook bought whatsapp for like 19 billion dollars, coinbase knows that and they are working for that. I know making money by millions every single day is amazing but having facebook buying your company for billions of dollars would result with huge amounts of money RIGHT NOW compared to making smaller amounts each day.

With that kind of exit they can start a huge ton of different new companies if they want to or just retire and relax for the rest of their lives. Look at the owners of whatsapp or instagram or even early facebook employees, they are living the life. Coinbase is just working towards getting bought out with these kinds of patents and moves.