Major bitcoin investment portal Coinbase has reported significant growth in revenue and users as it approaches an imminent direct listing.
As major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase prepares to start trading publicly on Nasdaq, it announced its first quarter estimated results and outlook for 2021 as a whole.
Its net income for the quarter is estimated at between $730 million to $800 million, with total revenue of approximately $1.8 billion — up from about $190.6 million in the first quarter of 2020, per CNBC. It estimates its verified user count for the quarter to be 56 million (up from 43 million at the end of 2020), with 6.1 million counted as monthly transacting users (MTUs). It estimates its first quarter trading volume at $335 billion.
Looking forward to its performance for all of 2021, Coinbase predicted that it could have as many as 7 million MTUs or as few as 4 million MTUs on average for the year, depending on the growth or decline of the cryptocurrency market capitalization. It also noted that growing institutional interest in cryptocurrencies could impact its growth across the year.
“We expect meaningful growth in 2021 driven by transaction and custody revenue given the increased institutional interest in the crypto asset class,” per the announcement. “However, our institutional revenue is inherently unpredictable.”
Many are watching Coinbase closely as it approaches its direct listing scheduled for April 14. As one of the oldest and most popular portals for investing in bitcoin in the world, its success across the first quarter of the year and as it approaches this historic listing reflects the success of BTC.
