Coinbase Global (COIN) has tumbled – dropping alongside US stocks and crypto

Coinbase has tumbled in a big way in the past month – dropping alongside US stocks and crypto. That nearly 50% plunge might make this crypto exchange look like a tempting stock buy

Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) stock has tumbled in a big way over the past month, dropping alongside US stocks and crypto.

While that nearly 50% plunge might make this crypto exchange look like a tempting stock buy, don’t assume it’s a bargain just yet. Some stock slips mark a real buying opportunity, but for the rest, it’s just a lower price tag.

I’ve run through this company’s numbers and built a model you can use to test various scenarios. So let’s dive in.

What exactly does Coinbase do?

Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN) is one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges in the world – and it’s the biggest publicly traded one. Back when there were very few crypto plays on the actual stock market (meaning, before there were bitcoin spot ETFs), Coinbase was one of the darlings. Institutional investors were generally barred from putting the money they managed into cryptocurrencies, but Coinbase gave them a mainstream way to profit from crypto’s action. And the better bitcoin did, the better Coinbase did.

Coinbase’s platform makes it easy for people and institutions to engage with crypto assets – by trading, staking, safekeeping, spending, or transferring them around the globe. And its services are widely used: researchers estimate that two-thirds of Americans who have owned crypto have used Coinbase at some point. And that familiarity has helped it increase its share of both US “spot” and “derivatives” crypto trading, with over 240 different digital assets available to trade on the platform.

Now, there have been a few rather gonzo operations in this industry (to say the least), but Coinbase has mostly not aligned itself with those. Let’s be clear, the firm has had its run-ins with regulators, but it’s also managed to (mostly) build a reputation for both security and legal compliance – and that’s helped it expand into over 100 countries. In the process, the company has developed a “competitive moat” that’s been keeping other potential rivals at a distance, allowing it to continue to profit from crypto’s growth story and even grow its market share.

At the end of last year, Coinbase’s platform held over $400 billion in digital assets – more than double what it had a year earlier. And most of that was in this market’s oldest, biggest asset: bitcoin. The firm is now the world’s biggest custodian of the OG crypto, holding roughly 12% of all the world’s mined bitcoin.

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You can use the accounts to invest in a variety of assets at varying risk levels – and most importantly, you won’t pay UK taxon any interest or gains.

That means your money can work harder: by keeping more cash in your account rather than the taxman’s, you’ll benefit from more compounding power, putting you closer to your goals.

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Kepler Trust Intelligence has done the hard work for you, ranking the top ISA providers for 2025 based on performance, fees, and customer satisfaction.

So to put ISA providers head-to-head, like you might with a new phone or a credit card comparison, you can take a look at Kepler’s ranking of the best ISA providers this year.Okay, so how does Coinbase make money?

Short answer: crypto fees (mostly). The company more than doubled its revenues last year, raking in $6.3 billion. The bulk of that, some $4 billion, came from crypto transaction fees, with retail investors responsible for 87% of the total and institutional investors driving the rest. Coinbase’s subscriptions and other services (things like stablecoins, staking, lending) pitched in the other $2.3 billion in revenue.

Right now, a lot is driven by activity in the market – and the fees that come from it. But the firm’s more diversified and less market-dependent revenue stream could ultimately help the firm command a higher valuation. (It just might take a while for that to play out.)

In the meantime, let’s have a look at Coinbase’s money pipelines.

Pipeline #1: Transaction fees.

Volatility tends to be a major driver of volumes. But in 2024, there were a couple of other huge drivers too: the launch of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the first quarter, for one, and an extended rally sparked by the election of a seemingly pro-crypto US president in the fourth quarter, for another.

Coinbase is, frankly, perfectly positioned to gain when everyone flocks