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Coinbase Gets Board Approval to Add $500M of Crypto to Its Balance Sheet

source-logo  cryptoknowmics.com 20 August 2021 02:30, UTC

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced Thursday that America’s largest digital asset exchange has received board approval to add $500 million in crypto to its balance sheet. Armstrong made the revelation via his official Twitter account.

Coinbase Will Add $500M in Crypto to Balance Sheet

Shortly after Armstrong’s announcement, Coinbase CFO Alesia Haas published a blog elaborating on the company’s updated investment policy. 

Haas indicated that going forward the exchange would invest $500 million of its cash and cash equivalents in cryptocurrencies. Aside from that, it will divert 10% of all its profits to a diverse portfolio of digital assets. 

“This means will become the first publicly-traded company to hold Ethereum, Proof of Stake assets, DeFi tokens, and many other crypto assets supported for trading on our platform, in addition to Bitcoin, on our balance sheet,” Hass added.

Right before it went public through a direct listing, Coinbase published an S-1 Filing in February, which showed the company held $365 million in cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin (BTC) accounted for the largest share of these holdings at $230 million, followed by Ethereum (ETH) at  $53 million, stablecoins at $49 million, and other digital assets at $34 million.

Until now, Coinbase was ranked fourth among all publicly traded companies for Bitcoin holdings. Some of the largest Bitcoin reserves in this domain belong to business analytics firm MicroStrategy, which holds a staggering $5 billion worth of Bitcoin, and electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors Inc, which owns $2 billion of Bitcoin.

The company’s newest investment policy comes close on the heels of a trillion-dollar infrastructure bill that could impose new tax-reporting rules on it. On August 18, Wall Street Journal reported that Coinbase had built a $4 billion battle chest to prepare for regulator scrutiny and “higher compliance costs.”

Coinbase Gets 50% of Its Business from BTC and ETH Trading

According to its quarterly financial report, Coinbase gets 50% of its business from Bitcoin and Ethereum trading. Additionally, the company generates most of its revenue from transaction fees. Bank of America analyst Jason Kupferberg, who initiated the company’s coverage at the institution, said that Coinbase needs to diversify income resources to make progress on its long-term vision.

“COIN aims to become the Amazon of crypto assets, though in our view COIN’s model is still in very early stages of development,” he noted in the coverage.

BofA has given Coinbase a neutral rating with a price target of $274.

cryptoknowmics.com