Coinbase turns into a poster child for the crypto selloff

By Claudia Assis

A quarterly loss and a 31% drop in total revenue follow layoffs news

Coinbase posted a second straight quarterly loss Thursday.

Don't look for signs of green shoots in crypto markets in Coinbase's latest financial snapshot.

The crypto exchange late Thursday posted a second straight quarterly loss, surprising Wall Street, which expected at least slim profits. And its 31% year-on-year drop in total quarterly revenue included a 40% year-on-year decline for transaction revenue, illustrating the effects of a weaker crypto market.

The company acknowledged the softer digital-asset business environment, but insisted that its fundamentals remain strong and that it has things under control.

"We executed well on what was in our control" in the quarter, CEO Brian Armstrong said.

Coinbase's stock (COIN) dropped nearly 4% in the extended trading Thursday, adding to a year-to-date decline of roughly 15%. Such losses compare with a decline of about 9% for the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF IBIT, and contrasts with 7% gains for the S&P 500 index SPX so far this year.

Coinbase's first-quarter revenue fell to $1.41 billion, from $2 billion a year ago. FactSet consensus called for revenue of $1.40 billion in the quarter.

The revenue decline included a 40% year-on-year drop for transaction revenue and a 14% decline in revenue from subscription and services.

Another surprise in the print was a GAAP loss of $1.49 a share for the first quarter, which followed a fourth-quarter loss of $2.49 a share and a year-ago profit of 24 cents a share.

In that too, Coinbase failed to impress, as analysts polled by FactSet expected GAAP earnings of 6 cents a share.

Coinbase said earlier this week it plans to lay off around 14% of its workforce and replace at least some of them with artificial intelligence.

At the time, Coinbase said that crypto is "currently in a down market" and stressed the need to adjust its cost structure so to emerge from the crypto winter "leaner, faster and more efficient for our next phase of growth."

-Claudia Assis

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-07-26 1703ET