Coinbase Reports Sharp Revenue, User Growth in Q4

The crypto exchange’s trading volume hit $547 billion, a nearly 70% quarter-over-quarter increase

article-image

Blockworks exclusive art by axel rangel

share

key takeaways

  • Coinbase’s monthly transacting users quadrupled in 2021 to 11.4 million
  • Crypto assets beyond bitcoin and ether contributed to 55% of Coinbase’s total trading volume in 2021

Coinbase’s revenue, trading volumes, monthly transacting users and platform assets all rose in the final quarter of a year during which the company became the first publicly traded crypto exchange.

The company generated $2.5 billion of net revenue and $840 million of net income in the final three months of 2021, Coinbase reported on Thursday — about double the revenue and net income it notched during the third quarter.

Assets on the platform grew from $255 billion to $278 billion quarter-over-quarter. 

Coinbase ended the year with 11.4 million monthly transacting users, about a third of whom both invested and engaged with a non-investing product. Total verified users grew to 89 million.

Trading volume hit $547 billion in the fourth quarter, up about 67% from $327 billion in the prior quarter. Crypto assets beyond bitcoin and ether contributed 55% of the volume in 2021.

Bank of America changed Coinbase’s rating from neutral to buy in January, noting that it expects the company to increasingly diversify its revenue streams beyond retail crypto trading.

Staking, NFT and decentralized finance (DeFi) products will be among the offerings driving the diversification, Research Analyst Jason Kupferberg wrote at the time.

Coinbase revealed in October that it would launch an NFT (non-fungible token) marketplace allowing users to purchase, mint, showcase and discover the cryptoassets. 

The company is slated to discuss its fourth-quarter and full-year financial results at 5:30 p.m. ET.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research

article-image

SOL has climbed more than 2,000% in the past two years

article-image

MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor alluded to Marathon’s CEO during a X Spaces on Tuesday

article-image

Crypto’s calls are equally as juiced as puts, creating a “smile” in the volatility surface

article-image

Turns out that owning the end-user via a crypto wallet is quite a prosperous business

article-image

The announcement followed growing speculation that Gensler would announce his exit before Trump takes office next year

article-image

HashKey Capital’s Jupiter Zheng highlighted three success areas he’s watching: Ethereum, Solana and certain tokens in DeFi