Coinbase crushes market expectations for its Q4, but stock falls
Coinbase Global Inc. stock fell nearly 6% in extended trading Thursday after the Silicon Valley crypto platform crushed Wall Street expectations for its fourth quarter but cast doubt on current-quarter dealings.
Coinbase COIN, +3.95% said it earned $840 million, or $3.32 a share, in the fourth quarter, compared with $177 million, or 66 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter.
Revenue jumped to $2.5 billion from $585 million a year ago. FactSet consensus called for earnings of $1.94 a share on sales of $1.97 billion.
In its letter to shareholders, Coinbase said that volume from retail monthly transacting users will be lower in the current quarter than in the fourth quarter.
Quarter-to-date, crypto asset volatility and crypto asset prices have declined from all-time highs in the fourth quarter, the company said.
The crypto market capitalization is down more than 20% from the fourth quarter, thanks to macro factors such as tightening financial conditions and Fed action, the company said.
That and other factors are contributing to the lower trading volume from retail users.
Coinbase became a public company last April, choosing to go the direct-listing route to equity markets. It said it had 56 million verified users at that time.
It said Thursday it grew its verified users to 89 million.
The company on Thursday pegged crypto’s market capitalization at $2.3 trillion by the end of the quarter, saying it was nearly up three times from the $800 billion at the end of 2020, with a peak of $3.1 trillion in November 2021.
Shares of Coinbase have lost 29% so far this year, compared to losses of around 10% for the S&P 500 index SPX, +1.50% in the same period.
