The Wall Street Journal ran a feature story over the weekend on Coinbase’s (COIN) overreach during the crypto boom – and how that has left it scrambling to right size the business as crypto melts down (“Coinbase’s Rapid Rise Left It Exposed In Crypto’s Collapse” [SUBSCRIPTION REQUIRED]). Their 2Q22 report released after the close Tuesday shows just how bleak things are.
Monthly Transacting Users (MTUs) declined from a peak of 11.2 million at the end of 4Q21 to 9.0 million – and even further to 8.0 million at the end of July. Trading Volume fell from $547 billion in 4Q21 to $217 billion – and the run rate worsened in July to $51 billion. As a result, profitability plummeted from $1.2 billion 4Q21 to -$151 million in 2Q22.
While crypto and COIN along with it have had a nice bounce over the last couple of months the jury is still out on the future of crypto.