Crypto exchange Coinbase will soon be indirectly added to millions of investment portfolios as it is set to join the S&P 500 index on May 19. Crypto exchange Coinbase Global (COIN) is set to join the Standard and Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) on May 19, becoming the first and currently only crypto firm to make it into the index. The crypto exchange will replace Discover Financial Services (DFS), which was recently acquired by Capital One Financial Corp (COF), S&P Global said on May 12. The S&P 500 is a stock market index that tracks the performance of 500 of the largest, publicly traded companies in the US, representing a broad measure of the overall US stock market. Coinbase’s inclusion in the S&P 500 should increase demand for its stock because index funds and exchange-traded funds that track the S&P 500 must buy COIN shares to mirror the index. The S&P 500 tracked an aggregate market cap of $49.8 trillion as of March 31. It is a market-cap-weighted index, giving more weight to larger firms such as Microsoft, Apple,...
Coinbase reportedly considered adopting a Michael Saylor–style Bitcoin investment strategy on multiple occasions since it launched in 2012, but opted out each time. Coinbase reportedly considered adopting a Bitcoin investment playbook like Michael Saylor’s Strategy on multiple occasions, but decided against it each time out of fear that it would kill the firm’s crypto exchange, Bloomberg reported. “There were definitely moments over the last 12 years where we thought, man, should we put 80% of our balance sheet into crypto — into Bitcoin specifically,” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong told Bloomberg in a May 9 video call. Armstrong said the Bitcoin (BTC) strategy could have risked the company’s cash position and potentially killed the crypto exchange. “We made a conscious choice about risk,” he added. Read more
Coinbase’s total revenue fell to $2 billion in Q1 as trading volumes across the market slowed, with net income falling dramatically as crypto prices slumped. Crypto exchange Coinbase’s total revenue fell 10% quarter-over-quarter to $2 billion in Q1, missing industry estimates by 4.1% as trading activity slowed across the market. Coinbase’s net income was sliced by 95% from a near-company record $1.29 billion in Q4 to $66 million, in a large part due to Coinbase marking a $596 million paper loss on its crypto holdings. The firm’s earnings per share of $1.94, however, managed to beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.85 for the quarter. Read more
The deal reflects competition among crypto exchanges to dominate the burgeoning derivatives market. Coinbase’s agreement to buy Deribit highlights the increasing importance of financial derivatives for cryptocurrency exchanges, according to industry executives. On May 8, Coinbase, the US’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, agreed to acquire crypto derivatives platform Deribit for $2.9 billion in the crypto industry’s largest corporate acquisition to date. The deal reflects increasing competition among digital asset exchanges and brokerages — including Coinbase, Kraken and Robinhood — to dominate the burgeoning crypto derivatives market. Read more
Deribit is the world's leading Bitcoin and Ethereum options trading platform, with more than $1.2 trillion in annual trading volume. Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US by trading volume, has agreed to acquire Deribit, one of the world’s biggest crypto derivatives trading platforms. Coinbase Global will acquire Deribit for about $2.9 billion, the exchange announced on May 8. The acquisition will allow Coinbase to expand into the profitable crypto derivatives market and continue scaling the platform’s global growth, Greg Tusar, Coinbase’s vice president of institutional product, said in the announcement. Read more
Coinbase users are falling prey to social engineering scams, costing users tens of millions of dollars in losses, according to ZackXBT. Onchain sleuth and security analyst ZackXBT claims to have identified an additional $45 million in funds stolen from Coinbase users through social engineering scams in the past seven days alone. According to the onchain detective, the $45 million figure represents the latest financial losses in a string of social engineering scams targeting Coinbase users, which ZackXBT said is a problem unique among crypto exchanges: Cointelegraph reached out to Coinbase but was unable to get a response by the time of publication. Read more
Coinbase is halting trading of Movement Labs’ MOVE token on May 15, citing noncompliance with its listing standards. Crypto exchange Coinbase has announced it will suspend trading of the Movement Network token (MOVE), the native cryptocurrency of the Movement layer-2 blockchain protocol, developed by Movement Labs, effective May 15. The decision was shared in a May 1 X post, with Coinbase citing the token’s failure to meet its listing standards. The price of the MOVE token also declined by approximately 14.5% in the last 24 hours. Coinbase specified the details of the suspension in an announcement: The suspension of the token follows a recently announced third-party review orchestrated by the Movement Network Foundation into an agreement allegedly signed by Movement Labs and a market-making firm, which is said to be behind the downfall of the MOVE token price in December 2024. Read more