Coinbase Global (COIN) CEO Brian Armstrong sought to ease investor worries amid a major slide across the crypto markets and a brawl in Washington, D.C., that has dimmed hopes for another piece of landmark legislation to pass through Congress.
“We’ve been through cycles like this many times at Coinbase, and adoption continues to grow. Regulatory clarity is on the horizon, and I’m more bullish than ever,” Armstrong said on the company’s earnings call on Thursday.
Armstrong’s comments came after Coinbase reported its second-worst quarterly net loss ever, $667 million, due to a $718 million paper loss on its crypto investment portfolio. Excluding swings in its crypto holdings, Coinbase reported adjusted EBITDA of $566 million, a 56% drop compared to the prior year and $89 million below Wall Street forecasts. Coinbase’s net revenue tallied $1.7 billion, down $487 million from the same period a year ago.
“There are opportunities in every market, whether it’s up and down,” Armstrong added, noting the company had benefited from previous crypto downturns.
Coinbase stock rose as much as 9% on Friday morning following the results.
Since the crypto world’s October peak, bitcoin, other digital assets, and crypto-exposed companies have been punished, with Coinbase stock down more than 50% and the total market capitalization of crypto assets losing $2 trillion over that period, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Amid this downturn in the company’s stock, Coinbase repurchased $1.7 billion worth of its own shares over the past year, enough to cover the stock paid out to employees and execs. Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas told investors on the call, “Coinbase is buying the dip.”
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Quarterly trading volume at Coinbase totaled $215 billion, down 51% from $439 billion last year. The company’s mainstay revenue stream, fees from retail traders, tumbled more than 45% and was $41 million short of analyst projections.
As Fundstrat head of digital assets Sean Farrell said on Thursday, “Crypto is in no-man’s land.”
Armstrong reminded analysts of the company’s notable progress in its longtime quest to make its business less beholden to crypto prices. In December, Coinbase had a splashy product release introducing trading for stocks, tokenized stocks, futures, and prediction market contracts.
“We now have 12 products doing over 100 million in annualized revenue,” he said.
In Washington, a brighter spotlight is on Coinbase after Armstrong publicly flexed his firm’s political might on social media by rejecting a major bill that would officially meld the crypto world with mainstream finance. A congressional committee canceled a hearing that would move the bill forward hours later.