Coinbase Global Inc. (NASDAQ: COIN)

Investment Considerations
  • Coinbase has more than 73 million verified users.
  • The company’s platform hosts more than $325 billion in quarterly cryptocurrency trading.
  • Coinbase has more than $255 billion in assets on its platform.
  • The company operates in more than 100 countries around the world.

Coinbase Global Inc. (NASDAQ: COIN) is the leading cryptocurrency exchange platform in the United States. The company intends to be the safe and regulation-compliant point of entry for retail investors and institutions into the cryptocurrency economy. Users can establish an account directly with the firm, instead of using an intermediary, and many choose to allow Coinbase to act as a custodian for their cryptocurrency, giving the company breadth beyond that of a traditional financial exchange. While the company still generates the majority of its revenue from transaction fees charged to its retail customers, Coinbase uses internal investment and acquisitions to expand into adjacent businesses, such as prime brokerage, data analytics, and collateralized lending.

Coinbase is building the crypto economy – a more fair, accessible, efficient, and transparent financial system enabled by crypto. The company started with the radical idea that anyone, anywhere, should be able to easily and securely send and receive Bitcoin. Today, Coinbase offers a trusted and easy-to-use platform for accessing the broader crypto economy.

Customers around the world discover and begin their journeys with crypto through Coinbase. The company’s mission is to increase economic freedom in the world. Coinbase believes everyone deserves access to financial services that can help empower them to create a better life for themselves and their families, and that if the world economy ran on a common set of standards that could not be manipulated by any company or country, the world would be a fairer and freer place, and human progress would accelerate.

Coinbase sees cryptocurrency in three different ways – as an investment, as a new financial system, and as an app platform. Crypto investing remains the company’s core business and is the foundation of growing the crypto economy. Investing is the first use case for every crypto holder and user, and Coinbase is the world’s most trusted onramp.

As more users hold cryptocurrency, new products will be built to help them use their crypto. Coinbase will offer financial services that are powered by modern crypto infrastructure. As crypto companies drive new innovations and products beyond financial use cases, Coinbase will invest deeply in discoverability and usability of third-party products in the crypto economy to make crypto as easy to use as it is to buy.

Products and Services

Retail customers who open a Coinbase account can buy, sell and use crypto on the platform. They can also set up a Coinbase Wallet to store all of their cryptocurrency, as well as their non-fungible tokens (NFTs), in one place. Coinbase Wallet supports more than 4,000 different assets.

Customers who download the app can explore the decentralized web on their smartphones. The company protects customers’ digital assets with industry-leading security. Coinbase is set to acquire leading cryptographic security company Unbound Security. Coinbase believes the acquisition further underlines the company’s commitment to providing the safest, most secure and most trusted venue for anyone to interact with the crypto economy.

Coinbase Wallet is a self-custody wallet, giving customers complete control of their crypto. Additional security options on all of their devices provide customers more ways to keep their crypto safe and secure.

The company also plans to offer a Coinbase Card that allows customers to spend cryptocurrency or U.S. dollars. Coinbase Card is a Visa® debit card that lets customers spend the assets in their Coinbase portfolios, including U.S. dollars, and, optionally, to earn rewards for each purchase. Customers can spend their crypto or U.S. dollars everywhere Visa debit cards are accepted.

Coinbase also offers Private Client services for high-net-worth individuals, personal investment vehicles, trusts and family offices. These clients have a dedicated account manager who can assemble a full team of experts as needed. The company also offers business services, including allowing companies to accept cryptocurrency as payment from any of their customers. Coinbase also provides prime brokerage services to trading firms, as well as institutional research, sophisticated strategy and direct access to the company’s crypto exchange.

Market Overview

The global cryptocurrency market is projected to grow from $910.3 million in 2021 to $1.9 billion in 2028 at a CAGR of 11.1% in the forecast period, according to Fortune Business Insights. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is regarded as a slight drag on growth early in the forecast period. The steady rise in CAGR can be attributed to the demand growth in distributed ledger technology, with growth returning to rapid pre-pandemic levels once the pandemic subsides.

Management Team

Brian Armstrong is co-founder and CEO at Coinbase. Before founding the company, he held positions with IBM, Deloitte & Touche and Airbnb. He also founded a previous company, Universitytutor.com. He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in computer science from Rice University.

Emilie Choi is president and COO at Coinbase. She previously held investment banking and corporate strategy positions with Legg Mason, as well as Yahoo. She also was director of business operations at Warner Bros. Entertainment, and vice president and head of corporate development at LinkedIn. She holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business.

Surojit Chatterjee is chief product officer at Coinbase. He has held technical and product chief positions at IBM, Oracle, Symantec, Flipkart and Google. He has an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Business and a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Buffalo.

Alesia Haas is CFO at Coinbase. Before joining Coinbase, Haas was CFO at Sculptor Capital Management and at CIT Bank. She has held positions at Merrill Lynch and GE Healthcare Financial Services. She holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Additional Resources

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