Coinbase Stockpiles $4.4B in Case of 'Crypto Winter': Report

Coinbase has amassed a cash stockpile of $4.4 billion to ensure it can continue growing despite potential business risks such as regulatory crackdowns, cyberattacks and declines in trading volume, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

• Alesia Haas, Coinbase’s chief financial officer, told the paper that the exchange maintains cash reserves so that it can continue to invest and expand even in the worst-case scenario of a “crypto winter.”
• Coinbase’s cash reserves stood at $4.36 billion at the end of June, up from $1.1 billion at the end of last year.
• “We want to ensure that we maintain those cash reserves so that we can continue to invest and continue to grow our products and services in the event that we go into a crypto winter,” Haas said.
• Coinbase, which generates nearly all of its revenue and profits from its comparatively high trading fees, has thrived with the surge in trading over the past year. Last week, Coinbase reported a net income of $1.6 billion for the second quarter, compared with a net income of $32 million from the same period in 2020.
• Haas also told the Wall Street Journal that the stockpile could be used for acquisitions. In recent months, Coinbase has scooped up data analytics platform Skew, investment visualization startup Zabo, and Bison Trails, a blockchain infrastructure provider.