Coinbase beats earnings estimates as analysts say regulation ‘will stifle’ innovation



[ad_1]

Coinbase stock rebounded at the start of U.S. trading hours on August 11 after beating Wall Street’s forecast for second-quarter sales and revenue.

The cost of buying a COIN share jumped 4.7% to $ 282.34 at the New York opening bell. Later, offers for COIN hit $ 294 before dropping back to the current price of $ 279.72.

Coinbase stock daily chart. Source: TradingView

Strong second quarter earnings for Coinbase

Coinbase reported better-than-expected profits in the second quarter of 2021 and net revenue of $ 2.3 billion. This was 27% higher than the previous quarter and 1,042% year over year.

Meanwhile, Coinbase’s net income jumped from $ 32 million to $ 1.6 billion over the same period, surpassing the profits of older and more traditional exchange traders, including CME Group, which has earned $ 510 million and made $ 1.2 billion in revenue in the third quarter and the Intercontinental Exchange, which reported $ 1.3 billion in profits.

Coinbase’s positive results came as various entities continue to accumulate Bitcoin (BTC), and the company announced that its monthly transaction metric rose to 8.1 million in the second quarter, from $ 6.1 million in the first trimester. Meanwhile, its trade volume reached $ 462 billion, compared to $ 335 billion during the same period.

During the earnings call, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong discussed plans to expand operations going forward.

Armstrong said:

“We’re also focusing on international expansion, another form of decentralization, and listing more and more assets. We want to be the Amazon of assets, listing all crypto assets that are legal.”

In a letter to shareholders, Coinbase shared its intention to explore decentralized finance (DeFi), adding that traditional customers and institutions would soon be using the technology, which excludes traditional intermediaries from financial services, such as lending and borrowing. .

Analysts remain cautious

On the flip side, Coinbase has warned that lower volatility in the cryptocurrency market could impact its profits over the coming year.

The company said its monthly trade users (MTUs) – retail traders who trade on the stock exchange at least once a month – jumped 44% to 8.8 million at the end of the second quarter. However, the net MTU declined in July and August, prompting Coinbase to lower its annual user estimate from 9 million to 8 million.

Falling transaction volumes is another metric for analysts, and the figure was lower in July, mainly due to Bitcoin’s price falling below $ 30,000.

According to Wedbush Securities analyst Moshe Katri, COIN’s main concerns are “primarily related to the regulatory environment”.

Katri is probably referring to the US Senate approving an approximately $ 1,000 billion infrastructure bill, part of which requires digital asset brokers to report capital gains to the Internal Revenue Service. The bill aims to raise $ 28 billion in a decade by taxing the cryptocurrency industry, but it has not defined who it considers “brokers”.

Anne Fauvre, chief operating officer of data security firm Oasis Labs, said the bill was too vague, fearing it would end up covering entities that are neither brokers nor hold personal information on their customers.

Fauvre told Cointelegraph that “regulation should be seen as a way to create safeguards around industries” and that “this bill would stifle the next 20 years of innovation in the United States as we know it.” .

In addition to these regulatory concerns, Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas told CNBC that U.S. regulators and lawmakers need to know that not all cryptocurrencies are security. Armstrong said Coinbase is investing in crypto defense with the Crypto Council for Innovation to ensure “sensible regulation” in the United States.

COIN’s technical outlook is positive

Katri reiterated a “buy” note for Coinbase stock and suggested an increase to $ 300 over the next 12 months, which is an estimate of the 3.03% increase.

Analyst rating consensus for Coinbase stock. Source: TipRanks

According to TipRanks, the average analyst consensus for COIN was also “buy,” with a price target of $ 369.25 per share by next year.