Coinbase Q2 Earnings Stumble: COIN Plunges 8% in After-Hours as Crypto Giant Misses Estimates

Crypto's golden child stumbles—Coinbase trips over Q2 expectations, sending COIN into an after-hours tailspin.

Wall Street left scratching its head

Another 'growth stock' fails to outrun the gravity of quarterly earnings math. Revenue? Missed. Estimates? Shattered. The usual hedge fund chorus now humming the bearish refrain.

The crypto winter thaw that wasn't

Exchange volumes slumped despite bitcoin's rally—proof that even dogecoin memes can't always paper over institutional skepticism. Retail traders? Still licking 2022's wounds.

Silver lining or fool's gold?

Management's 'cost discipline' spin meets reality: 8% share drop says nobody's buying it. But hey—at least the SEC lawsuit provides distraction from the numbers.

Crypto's most regulated player just proved Wall Street's oldest rule: miss earnings, get punished. Even blockchain can't rewrite that ledger.

Stacking sats

A notable balance sheet shift accompanied the print. Coinbase ended the quarter with $9.3 billion in dollar resources denominated in cash, cash equivalents, and net USDC. This number is $590 million smaller than the results from the first quarter, a 6% quarter-over-quarter. 

The decline can be partly attributed to purchases for its crypto asset investment portfolio. In the second quarter, Coinbase increased its Bitcoin holdings by $222 million through weekly purchases. 

As of June 30, the fair value of digital assets held for investment stood at $1.8 billion, with an additional $951 million held as collateral. Including these, the total available resources amounted to $12.1 billion, according to the shareholder letter.

Furthermore, Bitwise’s head of research Ryan Rasmussen highlighted that the exchangeresulting from the.

The quarter also reflected mixed underlying trends across the business. Assets under custody reached a record, supported by exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows and corporate uptake, but softer market activity weighed on fee realization. 

Management also flagged the impact of one-time costs tied to a previously disclosed data incident, offset in part by gains on the company’s crypto investment portfolio.

Separately, Coinbase said on July 31 via X that iton its platform, without providing further specifics on timing, scope, or structure. The company did not include additional details on this effort in the shareholder letter.