Shares of Coinbase (COIN) rallied at the end of the week after the crypto exchange released its fourth-quarter results for 2023.
Coinbase’s earnings report revealed the exchange posted its first profitable quarter in over two years, with a net income of $273 million, or $1.04 a share.
Speaking with Bloomberg, Owen Lau, an analyst at investment bank Oppenheimer & Co., says Coinbase may be changing the narrative that it’s an unprofitable company.
“Coinbase was widely perceived to be an unprofitable company, and this quarter can start changing the image going forward… I think the next step is to see if Coinbase can maintain profitability for the full year.”
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says 2023 was a “great year” for the company, and that the crypto exchange is in a strong financial position after cutting costs by 45% year over year while boosting its revenue.
Armstrong also references the launch of Coinbase International Exchange, the firm’s Ethereum (ETH) layer-2 Base and the exchange’s role as a prominent custodian of the Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as positive catalysts for the firm.
Says Armstrong,
“Tradfi is adopting crypto and this is great for Coinbase. Bitcoin ETFs are now the second largest commodity ETFs in the US (behind gold), and we custody around 90% of the ~$37B billion in Bitcoin ETF assets. We’ve seen net inflows across our retail and institutional products since the ETFs launched (i.e. no cannibalization).
In 2024 we’ll focus on growing trading fee revenue with international expansion and derivatives. We’ll also focus on driving utility in crypto with payments (for instance, you can now send USDC instantly for free on Base) and by developing Coinbase Wallet into an on-chain Super App. Finally, we’ll keep driving regulatory clarity for crypto via the courts, http://standwithcrypto.org, SuperPac contributions, and encouraging legislation in DC.
We’re in a strong financial position, our long-term focus on compliance has proved to be right vs. competition, and we’re well positioned to help accelerate crypto adoption, updating the global financial system.”
COIN is currently worth $180.28 per share, slightly down from its yearly high of $193.64 which it recorded on Friday.
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