Finance · Profile from Finance Research Companion
Coinbase Global, Inc.
The largest US-regulated crypto exchange and custodian. Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam founded it in San Francisco in 2012 to make buying bitcoin as easy as using a bank app. It survived five crypto cycles by trying to be the "compliant" exchange: state money-transmitter licences, a New York BitLicense, and segregated custody. It co-created the USDC stablecoin with Circle in 2018, and that partnership now pays it more than a billion dollars a year. Coinbase went public through a direct listing on Nasdaq in April 2021 at an opening valuation near ~$100bn. It was sued by the SEC in June 2023 as an unregistered exchange, broker and clearing agency, and won a dismissal in February 2025 after a change of administration. It holds the bitcoin for most US spot bitcoin ETFs, runs the Base layer-2 blockchain, bought the options exchange Deribit for a headline ~$2.9bn in 2025, and became the first crypto-native company in the S&P 500 in May 2025. Its profits still rise and fall with token prices. In 2025 it earned ~$7.2bn of revenue and ~$1.26bn of net income. In the first half of 2026 it lost money, cut ~14% of staff, and rebuilt itself around derivatives, stablecoins and subscriptions.
At a glance
- Founded
- June 2012, San Francisco (Y Combinator, summer 2012 batch)
- Founders
- Brian Armstrong (CEO), formerly an Airbnb engineer; Fred Ehrsam, formerly a Goldman Sachs trader (left in 2017 and co-founded Paradigm)
- Headquarters
- "Remote-first" since 2020, with no formal headquarters; incorporated in Delaware
- Ownership / structure
- Coinbase Global, Inc., Nasdaq: COIN (direct listing 14 April 2021). Dual-class shares give Armstrong voting control (reported). In the S&P 500 since 19 May 2025
- Leadership
- Brian Armstrong (co-founder, chairman and CEO); Emilie Choi (president and COO); Alesia Haas (CFO); Paul Grewal (chief legal officer) (company; verify 2026 changes)
- Licences
- State money-transmitter licences or equivalents across the US; NYDFS BitLicense and New York trust charter (Coinbase Custody Trust Company); Coinbase Derivatives (a CFTC-designated contract market, formerly FairX); conditional OCC approval for Coinbase National Trust Company (2 April 2026); MiCA authorisation in the EU via Luxembourg (2025, reported); Bermuda licence for Coinbase International Exchange; Deribit (Dubai/Panama)
- Segment
- Crypto exchange, broker, custodian, stablecoin distributor, staking provider, derivatives venue and blockchain operator (Base)
- Scale
- Assets on platform ~$377bn (Q3 2026, 12.5% of crypto market value); average USDC held in Coinbase products ~$22bn (Q3 2026); ~4,200 full-time staff (Q3 2026) (company)
- Financials
- 2021 revenue ~$7.8bn and net income ~$3.6bn; 2022 net loss ~$2.6bn; 2025 total revenue ~$7.18bn, net income ~$1.26bn, stablecoin revenue ~$1.35bn (10-K); Q1–Q3 2026 net losses of ~$394m and ~$360m, then net income of ~$719m (mostly crypto-investment gains) (company)
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Founding and the consumer on-ramp (2012); USDC and the Circle revenue share (2018–23); direct listing (2021); crypto-winter layoffs and the NYDFS settlement (2022–23); SEC Wells notice, lawsuit and dismissal (2023–25); Base (2023); spot-ETF custody (2024); Deribit and S&P 500 entry (2025); insider data breach (2025); the 2026 downturn, restructuring and trust charter
10 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2012
Founding and Consumer On Ramp
Founding
2018
USDC Launch and Circle Revenue Share
Partnership / launch (stablecoin consortium), restructured 2023
2021
Direct Listing
IPO (direct listing)
2022
Crypto Winter Retrenchment
Restructuring (layoffs, cost cuts); regulatory settlement
2023
Base Layer 2 Launch
Launch (proprietary blockchain network)
2023
SEC Wells Notice Lawsuit and Dismissal
Regulatory fight (litigation strategy)
2024
Spot Bitcoin ETF Custody
Partnership / launch (institutional custody and prime services for ETFs)
2025
Deribit Acquisition and SP 500 Entry
Acquisition; index inclusion
2025
Insider Data Breach and Extortion
Failure (security incident) and crisis response
2026
Downturn Restructuring and Trust Charter
Restructuring (layoffs, delayering); licence (conditional OCC national trust charter)