Coinbase Q2 beats estimates amid Blackrock custody deal, institutional focus
The crypto exchange’s second quarter revenue beat estimates while non-trading revenue surpassed trading revenue.
Crypto exchange Coinbase reported $663 million in net revenue for the second quarter of 2023, boosted by its custody deal with Blackrock and institutional focus, despite recent action taken against it by regulators.
Net revenue was down 10% compared to Q2 2022 but beat estimates, attributed to its growing market dominance in the United States as competitors such as Binance have been bogged down by regulatory trouble.
Net loss was $97 million — the sixth quarterly loss in a row for the exchange, but immensely narrower than the loss recorded in Q2 2022.
Our Q2’23 financial results are in and our letter to shareholders can be found on the Investor Relations website at https://t.co/8ovHEtQp5N pic.twitter.com/03JF6gUS0R
— Coinbase ️ (@coinbase) August 3, 2023
Adjusted EBITDA, which can provide a meaningful metric when comparing company performance, was $194 million — up from an EBITDA loss of $151 million in the prior year.
However, total transaction revenue, which it earns from providing crypto trading, was down 13% compared to Q1.
The exchange saw $327 million in transaction revenue along with a quarterly drop in overall trading volume of 37%.
This was due to consumer trading volume dropping 33% and institutional volume was down 37% in the quarter, with respective trading volumes of $14 billion and $78 billion.
However, Q2 also saw the exchange’s non-trading revenue surpass its trading revenue, with $335.4 million of net revenue coming from subscriptions and services.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said on an Aug. 3 earnings call that it was focused on the non-trading parts of the business over the next three to five years, naming scalability, regulatory clarity and driving crypto utility as focus areas.
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Meanwhile, Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal expressed confidence the exchange would win the court case brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, adding that it plans to file an order in court to dismiss the case entirely.
Coinbase’s share price remained flat in after-hours trading, trading just under $91. It’s down over 73% from its $343 all-time high in November 2021, according to Google Finance.
In its outlook for Q3, Coinbase said it doesn’t expect a “material impact” from having to pause staking in California, New Jersey, South Carolina and Wisconsin.
It predicted subscription and services revenue in Q3 to come in at around $300 million.
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Additional reporting by Tristan Greene and Jesse Coghlan.
