Coinbase (COIN) stock is up more than 8% on the day, following the release of impressive second quarter earnings on Tuesday after the stock market’s close.
- The U.S.’s largest cryptocurrency exchange posted $1.9 billion in transaction revenue, outpacing the expected $1.57 billion. Its take rate – or retail trading revenue divided by retail trading volumes – was 1.24%, up from 1.21% and the first increase in the metric in the past four quarters.
- But the company noted in its guidance that monthly transacting users (MTUs) in July had declined significantly to 6.3 million, and trading volume was only $57 billion in the month. While August’s numbers were slightly higher than this, Coinbase warned that MTUs and trading volume would be lower in Q3 compared to Q2.
- COIN was volatile after results were released yesterday after the close, as investors parsed the earnings report.
- “When people saw the earnings hit, the stock was up and when they looked at the future guidance for monthly transacting users and trading volume, the stock turned back,” said Oppenheimer analyst Owen Lau.
- But Lau added that "when people digested the earnings report and call, they realized there were way more positives than negatives. If you don’t transact in 28 days, they don’t count you as an MTU. Because bitcoin’s price was boring in July, traders didn’t engage … For me, I do see multiple catalysts for driving up MTUs in the second half of the year.”
- Coinbase shares are now up about 17% from their reference price of $250, but down around 28% from their opening trading price of $381 in mid-April.
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