[2018-01-23] Coinbase Overshoots 2017 Revenue Goal By 66% Making $1 Bln, Rejects

[cybersofts]

Coinbase Overshoots 2017 Revenue Goal By 66% Making $1 Bln, Rejects Further VC Funding



America’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase reportedly made $1 billion in revenue in 2017, overshooting its 2017 revenue forecast of $600 mln by 66 percent, Recode reports, citing “industry sources.” According to Recode, despite the peaked interest of outside investors, the company remains private and does not allow the stock to be traded on secondary markets.

The platform was swamped by an influx of new users looking to set up trading accounts as Bitcoin entered a massive bull run in November, 2017. Following the announcement of Bitcoin futures launch early that month on CME, Coinbase saw 100,000 new users sign up in just 24 hours.

Although Bitcoin’s long bull run ended in the week leading up to Christmas, its rise to an all-time high of $20,000 in mid-December saw Coinbase make massive revenues through trades on its platform.

The cryptocurrency exchange makes revenue by charging fees for fiat to crypto conversions via its Buy/Sell feature and for trades on its GDAX exchange.


Investors clawing for stake in Coinbase

The success of Coinbase has not gone unnoticed by investors and venture capitalists. According to Recode’s report, shares in the company are being sought out on a number of fronts.

However, Coinbase shareholders have been told not to sell their shares to outside parties. Doing so would constitute a breach of policy, Coinbase told Recode in a statement:

    "As a private company, Coinbase does not allow trading of stock on secondary markets for a variety of reasons, including the fact that there is not full and equal information available to the market. We will take appropriate action if we find people have sold Coinbase shares in violation of our agreements not to do so."

In August 2017, Coinbase raised $100 mln in a series D funding run aimed at increasing its engineering and customer service teams as well as opening a new GDAX office in New York. Investors that missed out on the latest fundraising series are trying their best to entice current shareholders to part ways with lucrative shares, Recode reported.

By December, Coinbase had over 13 million users -- more than mainstream brokerage firm Charles Schwab.


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/coinbase-overshoots-2017-revenue-goal-by-66-making-1-bln-rejects-further-vc-funding

[Cryptoprimes]

Coinbase, you are lucky guys But maybe you deserved it, because the product is cool

[baradfo]

This is good news for Coinbase, and they have the makings of a good product. They need to start showing their appreciation for their customers and work to ensure that during periods of high volatility that they don't crash as has been the case in the past. I also understand that they are a company and need to make money, but they also need to work on their fees.

[CryptoBry]

This is just telling us how lucrative the cryptocurrency market is and how Bitcoin can really mean business. While Coinbase and other big exchanges could not keep with the demand of the new clients rushing into their doors, we are dealing with a sluggish Bitcoin under a semi-gloomy market. While we are seeing excitement in many exchanges, we see so many negative FUDs thrown around the market. Oh, this is really living in a world of ironies. Now, the government should realize that since Coinbase must be paying appropriate taxes (I assumed) this cryptocurrency business should not be stifled but rather be enhanced by introducing perks for the participants.

[hatshepsut93]

Coinbase, you are lucky guys But maybe you deserved it, because the product is cool

Coinbase is a cancer to Bitcoin's ecosystem, it is responsible for significant amount of transactions, wallets and trading volume, and if MtGox have taught us something, it's very bad to have huge centralized point of failure so if Coinbase will get hacked, it will very likely crash the market in short term and make people distrust cryptocurrency, even though Bitcoin itself will be safe. It's also bad that they control so many coins on behalf of their customers and have access to their financial information. We desperately need to have good decentralized exchanges to prevent all the centralization risks.

[baradfo]

Coinbase, you are lucky guys But maybe you deserved it, because the product is cool

Coinbase is a cancer to Bitcoin's ecosystem, it is responsible for significant amount of transactions, wallets and trading volume, and if MtGox have taught us something, it's very bad to have huge centralized point of failure so if Coinbase will get hacked, it will very likely crash the market in short term and make people distrust cryptocurrency, even though Bitcoin itself will be safe. It's also bad that they control so many coins on behalf of their customers and have access to their financial information. We desperately need to have good decentralized exchanges to prevent all the centralization risks.

I agree that centralized exchanges/"cryptobanks" like Coinbase don't need to be around due to the nature of crypto. I also agree that decentralized exchanges would be a better way to go around for the communities as well, but the decentralized system still needs work. So in the mean companies like Coinbase are providing a service. Another service that companies like Coinbase are serving is a way for the noobs to come into crypto communities since their mindset is still with the older system of fiat banks. Since it is an easier system it makes adopting come more natural and widespread.

On the similarities between MtGox and Coinbase, MtGox was run by an incompetent fool as where Coinbase is run by a team and they are trying to take lessons from failed ventures. They just need to learn to scale better and not shut down in times of huge stress. I do believe they are moving towards that goal, but can do better.

[Jating]

Hell No!!!

They made tons of money but shitty support? They should have at least gave us way better support because they are making a lot of money from us. They even clogging the network because they are not doing batch transactions. They are really a cancer to every trader, but since crypto is booming, a lot of new investors flock to their trading platform and think that there are no better trading platforms around.

This is good news for Coinbase, and they have the makings of a good product. They need to start showing their appreciation for their customers and work to ensure that during periods of high volatility that they don't crash as has been the case in the past. I also understand that they are a company and need to make money, but they also need to work on their fees.

Do you really think that they will improved their support? They have been called around March-June because of their shitty platforms but we don't see any improvement, actually they became worst. That's why I don't do trading on Coinbase, they don't care about their customers.

[richardsNY]

Coinbase is a cancer to Bitcoin's ecosystem, it is responsible for significant amount of transactions, wallets and trading volume, and if MtGox have taught us something, it's very bad to have huge centralized point of failure so if Coinbase will get hacked, it will very likely crash the market in short term and make people distrust cryptocurrency, even though Bitcoin itself will be safe. It's also bad that they control so many coins on behalf of their customers and have access to their financial information. We desperately need to have good decentralized exchanges to prevent all the centralization risks.

I completely share your points. I have been saying this for a while now that Coinbase's position in this market is far too large. I would love to see more services battle for market share and scoop up some of Coinbase's already impressive share of the market. If things continue as they are, and there is no reason to think otherwise, Coinbase will gain so much importance, that they will be able to block or approve certain proposals, which worries me to be honest. On top of that, what if a large financial institution decides to acquire Coinbase in its entirety? I don't want to think about this as a crypto and decentralized market enthusiast, but it is a legit concern. I hope that people understand this and think twice before signing up there, even though they are very competent as platform.

[baradfo]

Hell No!!!

They made tons of money but shitty support? They should have at least gave us way better support because they are making a lot of money from us. They even clogging the network because they are not doing batch transactions. They are really a cancer to every trader, but since crypto is booming, a lot of new investors flock to their trading platform and think that there are no better trading platforms around.

This is good news for Coinbase, and they have the makings of a good product. They need to start showing their appreciation for their customers and work to ensure that during periods of high volatility that they don't crash as has been the case in the past. I also understand that they are a company and need to make money, but they also need to work on their fees.

Do you really think that they will improved their support? They have been called around March-June because of their shitty platforms but we don't see any improvement, actually they became worst. That's why I don't do trading on Coinbase, they don't care about their customers.

Actually they have been hiring support, back and front end personnel, to improve their services. They haven't been hiring quickly, which could be an indicator that they are hiring quality personnel instead of quantity. Yes they have failed previously, though it appears they are attempting to correct their deficiencies.

[1Referee]

what if a large financial institution decides to acquire Coinbase in its entirety?

Valid concern, but in the same way, what if Coinbase becomes so wealthy, that they use their capital to acquire Blockchain.info, Kraken, Xapo, etc? I personally find this to be a more realistic scenario than having whatever entity acquire Coinbase itself.

I hope that people understand this and think twice before signing up there, even though they are very competent as platform.

Those who actually have the ability to think further than the far majority of the people might do this, but all the noobs and whatnot will probably not care about it. For them the only thing that matters is the buying and selling aspect, where a lot of these noobs even use Coinbase as wallet to store their coins in. Coinbase has made a massive tank of itself in the years it has been active in this market, and even in such a way, that they managed to leave their closest competitors at that point far behind in current times.

[BitHodler]

Good to read, now pump some of that money into expanding your support capabilities, and at the same time hire more staff to take care of the thousands and thousands of verification requests.

Thinking further, it should also be a more than profitable year for other similar services. If they don't do something to deliver a better user experience, it is pretty embarrassing to put it mildly.

I just can't stand it that these services keep hiding themselves behind excuses that the demand has increased significantly. We know that by now, put some effort into doing something about it for once.