Coinbase Expects 2022 Revenue to Tank by over 50%

Coinbase, an American cryptocurrency exchange, is expecting its revenue for the fiscal year 2022 to be “about roughly half or less” than its revenue in 2021, Brian Armstrong, the firms Chief Executive Officer, told Bloomberg on Wednesday.

The exchange also tweeted the same information, noting that the projection is in line with the outlook provided on our Q3 earnings call on Nov 3, 2022.

Crypto Market Turmoil

This expectation of a sharp decline in the crypto exchanges revenue comes on the heels of the collapse of top crypto firms this year and plummeting market prices of digital assets.

In early November, the collapse of the Bahamas-headquartered crypto exchange, FTX, sent shock waves across the crypto industry. The exchange, one-time one of the industrys largest, is currently undergoing bankruptcy proceedings in the US and facing civil and criminal investigation in the Bahamas.

In the fall-out of FTX, American crypto lender BlockFi late last month filed for bankruptcy protection in the US. Earlier in the year, crypto lenders Celsius Network and Voyager Digital also filed for bankruptcy in the aftermath of the Terra-Luna collapse. Also, a British Virgin Islands court recently ordered the liquidation of erstwhile Singapore-based crypto hedge fund, Three Arrows Capital.

According to CoinMarketCap, the global crypto market capitalization currency stands at about $840.67 billion, down from over $2 trillion at the start of the year. In August, bitcoin deposits on exchanges hit a two-year low amidst crumbling cryptocurrency prices.

Worsening Revenue

While Coinbase doubled its revenue during the fourth quarter of 2021 to $2.5 billion, by the second quarter of 2022, the revenue dropped to $808.3 million, with over $1 billion posted in losses. At the end of the third quarter of the current fiscal year, its net revenue came in at $576 million, which is approximately a -29% decline.

According to financial markets data provider, Refinitiv, analysts expect Coinbases revenue to tank by 75% to $621.5 million at the end of the fourth quarter.