Coinbase’s Q1 Call Reveals Growth, Product Roadmap

Coinbase broadcast its Q1 earnings call today, revealing its expectations for financial growth and its plans for future products.

Usage Stats Are Strong

“2021 is off to a strong start,” Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas stated during the call. “We have seen all time high crypto prices drive elevated levels of user activity and trading volume on our platform.”

Haas drew attention to Coinbase’s user base, noting that the company had 56 million verified users and 6.1 million monthly transacting users (MTUs) in Q1 of 2021.

She also outlined Coinbase’s Q1 financial statistics. The firm saw a trading volume of $335 billion. It had $223 billion worth of assets on its platform, representing 11.3% of the crypto market cap. It had a total revenue of $1.8 billion, a net income of $740-$800 million, and $1.1 billion in earnings before interest and taxes (EBITDA).

Haas then put forth a number of projections about Coinbase’s future growth. Depending on the volatility of the market, Haas expects to see 4 to 7 million monthly transacting users on average in 2021. Full details can be seen in Coinbase’s press release.

New Features Ahead

During the call, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong revealed details about the company’s business plans. He says that Coinbase considers its targetable audience “anyone with a smart phone” and compared the current state of the cryptocurrency industry to the dawn of e-commerce in the late 1990s.

“We think that, as innovation continues to rapidly transform and grow the crypto economy, we will see crypto take up a substantial portion of economic activity over the next decade,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong also discussed Coinbase’s product roadmap. Though Coinbase initially provided investment services, Armstrong says that it plans to expand its offerings by adding support for more assets and by providing access to third party services such as DeFi.

He also drew attention to Coinbase’s recent acquisition of Bison Trials, which will help the company serve institutional investors. This will allow the company to offer blockchain as a service to institutional users, similar to the services currently offered by AWS.

No Comments On IPO

Though many investors are waiting for details on Coinbase’s IPO, the call did not spend much time on that topic.

Haas stated that Coinbase decided to publish extensive details in light of the company’s upcoming IPO, and noted that future reports may not be so thorough. Meanwhile, Armstrong made a brief closing statement on the IPO: “We are excited to begin the journey as a public company,” he noted at the end of the call.

Coinbase’s IPO will take place on Wednesday, Apr. 14, 2021.

Disclaimer: At the time of writing this author held less than $75 of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and altcoins.