Coinbase Revenue Down 28% as Trading Volume Sinks Amid Brutal Bear Market

By Stacy Elliott

Coinbase reported net revenue of $576 million for the third quarter on Thursday, down 28% from $803 million the previous quarter.

Transaction revenue fell 44% compared to the second quarter as fewer users were active on the crypto exchange, according to the company's earnings report. It's been a common refrain from exchanges as the global market capitalization remains stuck at $1 trillion, down $2 trillion from what it was a year ago.

Coinbase monthly transacting users dropped 5% and trading volumes fell 27% during the third quarter, which ended on September 30, according to the company's shareholder letter. The exchange did note that the total value of assets on its platform grew 4%, from $96 billion to $101 billion.

The actual trading volume on the platform—the biggest and only publicly traded crypto exchange in the U.S.—fell from $217 billion to $159 billion. But the company reported that its subscription and service revenue grew during Q3, from $147 million to $211 million.

The company also highlighted recent deals with BlackRock and Google in its shareholder letter, suggesting that it's optimistic about institutional adoption. It claims that 25% of the top 100 hedge funds are Coinbase customers.

Just yesterday, Coinbase Chief Product Officer Surojit Chatterjee announced that he would be stepping down at the end of November. Coinbase famously poached Chatterjee from Google (and gave him a compensation package that included $466 million worth of stock options) at the start of 2020, but said in a LinkedIn post that it’s “time to get off the ride and catch my breath.”

It was another blow during what’s already been a rough week for the company. On Thursday, COIN closed at $55.80 after having fallen 8% over the past day and down 21% compared to the end of last week. 

But there have been some small signs of optimism.

Two weeks ago, Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest bought COIN for the first time since the firm dumped almost $75 million worth of shares in July. At the time, Wood said the decision was made after the SEC said nine tokens trading on Coinbase’s exchange were unregistered securities. 

Outside of its earnings, Coinbase has been busy advocating on behalf of its peers in the crypto industry.

Since its last earnings call, Coinbase has backed the lawsuit against the U.S. Treasury Department over the sanctioning of wallet addresses associated with Ethereum mixing service Tornado Cash, and it submitted amicus briefs in support of Ripple and Grayscale in their court battles with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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