Coinbase CEO Armstrong Confirms Street Expectations for a 50%-Plus Decline in Revenue in 2022

Coinbase Global Inc. (COIN) CEO Brian Armstong said the company’s revenue will be half or less what it was last year as the crypto exchange struggles amid stark price drops in cryptocurrency prices and continuing ripple effects from multiple bankruptcies this year, including the recent collapse of rival exchange FTX.

“Last year in 2021 we did about $7 billion of revenue and about $4 billion of positive EBITDA, and this year with everything coming down it’s looking, you know, about roughly half that or less,” Armstrong said in an interview on Bloomberg’s “David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations.” Coinbase actually generated $7.8 billion in revenue in 2022, according to FactSet.

The estimated decline is hardly news to market participants. Analysts surveyed by FactSet prior to Coinbase’s third-quarter earnings release estimated Coinbase’s annual revenue in 2022 to be $3.3 billion. Currently they are estimating it to be $3.2 billion, which would be a 59% drop from 2021.

Coinbase’s stock is down more than 83% this year and is one of the worst-performing stocks on the Nasdaq. A growing number of investors are stepping away from crypto-related companies, particularly with the recent collapse of FTX.

While some high-profile investors, including Bill Ackman and Kevin O’Leary, have come out in recent days and said they believe former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried might be telling the truth, Armstrong recently tweeted he doesn't believe SBF's claim that FTX’s troubles were just the result of accounting errors. "It's stolen customer money used in his hedge fund, plain and simple," Armstrong wrote.

Read more: Crypto Exchange Coinbase's Shares Sink to All-Time Low