Shares of Coinbase Global
Net revenue dropped 31% to $803 million, while the company's net losses increased by 154% to $1.1 billion. Adjusted EDBITA slid from $20 million in Q1 to a $151 million loss in Q2. The company's cash stockpile decreased 7.1% to $5.6 billion.
According to Coinbase, the company's recent woes have been "primarily driven by macroeconomic conditions and shocks to the crypto credit environment." The company took much of its letter to shareholders claiming that the company was transforming to keep up with market conditions.
"On the expense side, we've taken several steps to streamline our cost structure, including an 18% employee reduction in June," the company said. "Overall, it will take some time to fully realize the financial impact of our actions, but we have lowered our full year expense range for Technology & Development and General & Administrative expenses. On the product side, we are taking a "pause, maintain, and prioritize" approach to product development and are focusing on five key areas."
Coinbase maintains a bullish outlook for the future despite the current market downturn, pointing to developments like its recent partnership with BlackRock
What Comes Next for Coinbase?
While Coinbase is in a strong position to outlast the crypto winter, it still has fundamental issues to confront going forward.
The company has said that it faces increasing competition from foreign crypto firms like Binance and Vauld. Despite having a slate of their own issues during the crypto winter, competing exchanges have managed to steal the lower-market maker demographic from Coinbase with superior derivative offerings.
Retail investors, whose transaction fees and investments make up a significant amount of Coinbase's income, have also begun to turn sour on crypto trading. A great many retail investors have retreated from the hypothermic conditions of the crypto winter, and even those that remain seem to have slowed the pace of their investing dramatically.
Monthly transacting users on Coinbase dropped from 11.2 to 9.2 million by Q1, though that attrition slowed significantly in Q2 with a loss of only 200,000 MTUs. However, trading volume dropped to $309 billion from $547 billion in Q1, and slid further to $217 billion by Q2. Assets on the platform slid from $278 billion to $256 in Q1 but took a far deeper plunge to $96 billion by Q2.
Coinbase could very well end up taking ongoing losses and potentially losing some of its market share but will almost certainly survive to see the crypto spring at the end of the long winter. Getting to the spring is looking to be a rough road for the company and for investors, though Coinbase is already preparing for the long road ahead with cost reductions across the board.
Many analysts have a similar faith that Coinbase can make it through, though many have factored in lower price estimates to account for the journey ahead. At least a dozen analysts give the crypto exchange a buy rating, with ten rating Coinbase as a hold.