Coinbase posted lower-than-expected results for the first quarter as crypto prices fell, weighing on one of the companies’ major revenue drivers — spot trading in digital assets .
Here’s how Coinbase performed in its quarter ended March 31, compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: $1.49 loss vs. 27 cent profit expected
- Revenue: $1.41 billion vs. $1.52 billion expected
Coinbase shares were down 4% in after-hours trading.
The company, which operates the largest cryptocurrency marketplace in the U.S., posted transaction revenue of $755.8 million versus $805.2 million expected by analysts. Subscription revenue came in at $583.5 million versus $619.3 million estimated.
Sharp slowdown
Investors were bracing for a sharp slowdown in trading volume given the crypto price slump at the start of the year. Bitcoin rose 12% in March, but posted a 22% decline in the first quarter.
Coinbase net income is often distorted by accounting rules that require it to value its large crypto holdings based on whatever the price is at the end of the quarter, causing reported earnings to swing widely even when no assets are sold.
Known largely for its cryptocurrency trading platform, Coinbase is trying to diversify its revenue streams through subscription and services businesses, including revenue from stablecoins and staking.
Stablecoin revenue totaled $305 million, up from $274 million last year, driven by growth in the market cap of the USDC stablecoin and an all-time high average on USDC held in Coinbase products.
Crypto’s era of easy moonshots and hype-driven returns is fading as exchanges increasingly shift toward more diversified trading revenue, drawn from prediction markets and tokenized real-world assets, rather than relying on more speculative investments.
“We’re trying to diversify the things that people can trade so that as markets shift, as different behaviors shift, we’ll always have something that people want to trade,” Coinbase Chief Financial Officer Alesia Haas told CNBC. “That diversification will help tamp down some of the volatility we’ve seen from pure crypto-only trading.”
Investors are looking for signs that Coinbase can still make money when crypto trading pulls back. Crucial to that effort is Coinbase’s success in strengthening non-transaction businesses in order to offset the cyclicality of transaction fees during slowdowns.
Beyond crypto
While top and bottom line results missed expectations, Coinbase saw promising growth in its diversified offerings, including event contracts and support for trading of crypto derivatives and tokenized real-world assets.
The company recorded roughly $4.2 billion in first-quarter derivatives trading volume, a 169% increase over the same period a year ago. Despite this year’s slump in crypto prices, the exchange gained share in both spot and derivatives trading globally, reaching an all-time high in crypto trading volume market share of 8.6%.
Coinbase also forecast that its prediction market business would see $100 million in annualized revenue by the end of this year. The business segment launched in late January, in partnership with Kalshi.
Moves to diversify away from crypto underscore Coinbase’s effort to create an “everything exchange” — an initiative unveiled a year ago by CEO Brian Armstrong to make the company less dependent on the trading of tokens such as bitcoin, ether and XRP.
Investors listened during the Coinbase management call with analysts at 5:30 p.m. ET Thursday for updates on the trading platform’s margins and operating discipline following this week’s announcement that the company will cut roughly 14% of its workforce, or 700 jobs. Coinbase pointed to the layoffs as part of a broad, AI-driven restructuring effort, and cited the crypto downturn as a catalyst.
The job cuts underscored Wall Street expectations that subdued trading conditions could persist into the second quarter.
Read Coinbase’s full shareholder slide deck here.
Correction: This story has been revised to reflect that the CEO of Coinbase is Brian Armstrong. A previous version misspelled his name.
