Coinbase earnings

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase reported Q1 2021 revenues that were higher than the company's full-year 2020 earnings. Net income rose to $730m.

Cryptocurrency company Coinbase on Tuesday announced its unaudited Q1 2021 results and outlook for the current year ahead of its direct listing on NASDAQ, which is scheduled for 14 April.

Amid a surge in cryptocurrency prices, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase's first quarter was its best ever.

Coinbase's direct listing has attracted a lot of attention among investors, as the price of bitcoin has risen by almost 700% over the past year and Ethereum by more than 1,100%.

Because it is a direct listing, Coinbase does not issue new shares but allows existing shareholders to sell their shares to investors. The company plans to list about 115 million Class A ordinary shares, which will trade under the ticker COIN.

In the first three months of 2021, Coinbase reported the following:

• Revenues rose almost nine-fold to $1.8bn.
• Coinbase's profit jumped to $730 million in the first quarter of 2021.

In total, Coinbase posted a profit of $322.3 million for 2020.

The increase in revenue and profit was due to a jump in cryptocurrency prices, as Coinbase earns revenue from transaction fees that depend on the value of cryptocurrencies, Coinbase does not charge fees for cryptocurrency storage.

• The number of registered users of the crypto exchange was 56 million.
• The number of users making monthly transactions (MTU) at the end of the first quarter was 6.1 million, up from 2.8 million at the end of 2020.
• Assets on the platform reached $223 billion. (Of which, $122bn of assets are from organisations). According to Coinbase, this represents an 11.3% market share of crypto assets.
• Trading volume on Coinbase was $335bn, up from $193.1bn at the end of 2020.

Coinbase forecast for 2021

Coinbase said it expects one-off costs of around $35m related to the direct listing; as well as general and administrative costs in the range of $1.3bn to $1.6bn for the full year 2021. Meanwhile, Coinbase expects sales and marketing to account for 12% to 15% of net revenue in 2021.