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Despite numerous wrong turns and silly mistakes, Coinbase is looking more and more as the lonely survivor positioned to dominate crypto trading in the West. Th

by cs702 4y ago

Despite numerous wrong turns and silly mistakes, Coinbase is looking more and more as the lonely survivor positioned to dominate crypto trading in the West. The company has lots of cash on hand in excess of corporate debt, almost no short-term corporate debt, customer assets backing all customer deposits, and as far as I can tell from a quick read of the latest quarterly report, a clean balance sheet with no red flags. If the crypto market recovers from the latest crash, which is what has happened after all previous crashes in the past, Coinbase stands to win big.

charlieyu1 4y ago
We should go fully decentralised for the future, with fiat/crypto done at retail scale. Unfortunately there is a huge lobby of banks and government that want to monitor people spending money to make it happen.
cableshaft 4y ago
They've already survived two crypto winters as well before this one, so they've already had experience and gotten to see what works and what doesn't, and have structured their company accordingly. I think if any crypto company deserves to survive this crypto winter, they're probably the most deserving.
- smt88 4y ago
  I doubt their past experience applies. This is far more than a winter.
  - danuker 4y ago
    I agree, this might be a prolonged depression because the interest rates are higher.
  - cableshaft 4y ago
    I didn't literally mean that past crypto winters lasted only as long as a physical winter. Past crypto winters have lasted as much as two years. If this lasts longer than that, sure, it can be considered worse than past ones. Currently we're just barely over a year from bitcoin's all-time-high, though. As the other comment said, we're somewhat in uncharted territory with higher interest rates, but I don't think it will insure a longer winter. It might just keep it from getting quite as high as the ATH for a while, but I think as the rate increases slow down (and especially once they start being cut again) it will start rebounding significantly. Also if that past experience doesn't apply, then it probably doesn't apply for any other non-crypto company that was founded since 2012 (when Coinbase was founded as well). You expecting all of them to go belly up, just because they only existed in the era of low interest rates?
    - dogleash 4y ago
      Are there any rubes left though? The types of people reaching out to me to explain crypto during the last boom makes me think the wells are running dry.
  - capableweb 4y ago
    "Crypto winter" doesn't refer to the fact that half of the world is in the "winter season" climate currently but rather a time-period (traditionally lasting longer than a climate "season") when cryptocurrencies prices are at a downturn.
    - TAForObvReasons 4y ago
      "winter" implies there's a forthcoming "spring". Parent is suggesting the possibility of a permanent impairment, that crypto may never "recover" to public interest and price levels seen in the last few years.
- cs702 4y ago
  Yes. Everything suggests they are prioritizing long-term financial stability and staying power for what could be a really long crypto winter. Many poorly thought-out, poorly executed, and brazenly fraudulent schemes must be fully washed away before the market for this technology can find its footing. Armstrong and his top execs deserve a lot of credit for staying rational over the past few years, while execs at most other firms in the industry seemingly lost their minds and willingly threw themselves into the flames of all sorts of stupid risky schemes destined to burn violently into ash.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
jxm262 4y ago
I've always thought this to be the case. Coinbase and Kraken will be the dominant US players (imho).
msoad 4y ago
"Crypto Industry" only has investors. I have not seen an actual cryptocurrency user that says "I'm here to use this thing"
- dvngnt_ 4y ago
  they exists but use cases aren't as popular
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- rchaud 4y ago
  The kind of things that crypto actually buys (besides NFTs and stablecoins) necessitate a certain level of discretion.
Sohcahtoa82 4y ago
> Coinbase is looking more and more as the lonely survivor positioned to dominate crypto trading in the West. Because it feels like they're the only ones that stay legit while also seeming to take security quite seriously. Everyone else is either a scammer or gets hacked, and I'm convinced at least half of the "hacks" are inside jobs.
- WXLCKNO 4y ago
  Kraken has the same legitimacy imo.
hgsgm 4y ago
Coinbase is so well run that it will probably outlive cryptocurrency trading, at least briefly.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
Kukumber 4y ago
Coinbase reputation got hit when people found out about their insider trading [1], on top of them hiring ex-wall street people Coinbase also is 10x less volume than Binance [2] You have all of this, then the press who keep advertise them despite the poor metrics, something doesn't sound right I think it's fair to say people made their choice and the choice is Binance The narative can't be forced like with other industries, unless you get help from the press and push some FUD, hmm Or with the help of the CIA with FTX as a poison aimed at Binance, hmm [1] - https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/three-charged-first-ever-cryptocurrency-insider-trading-tipping-scheme https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/three-charged-first-eve... [2] - https://coinmarketcap.com/rankings/exchanges/ https://coinmarketcap.com/rankings/exchanges/
- KrakenEng 4y ago
  Binance can create its own volume out of thin air. This would be harder for Coinbase, due to their nature as a public company. The truth is, it's hard to know what is happening inside Binance.
  - Kukumber 4y ago
    That's true, but that's easy to track, as everything in the blockchain is transparent, that's how people found out about the insider trading at Coinbase
e40 4y ago
Yet, I have an issue with my business account and their support has ghosted me. They kept responding with form letters and I kept telling them they weren't reading my emails, then they stopped. I'm just trying to add a business debit card to a business account. I get an error message that says "business cards are not supported" and their support tells me I have a personal account. What a mess. It's been 3 weeks now.

by cs702 4y ago

charlieyu1 4y ago

We should go fully decentralised for the future, with fiat/crypto done at retail scale. Unfortunately there is a huge lobby of banks and government that want to monitor people spending money to make it happen.

cableshaft 4y ago

They've already survived two crypto winters as well before this one, so they've already had experience and gotten to see what works and what doesn't, and have structured their company accordingly. I think if any crypto company deserves to survive this crypto winter, they're probably the most deserving.

smt88 4y ago
I doubt their past experience applies. This is far more than a winter.
- danuker 4y ago
  I agree, this might be a prolonged depression because the interest rates are higher.
- cableshaft 4y ago
  I didn't literally mean that past crypto winters lasted only as long as a physical winter. Past crypto winters have lasted as much as two years. If this lasts longer than that, sure, it can be considered worse than past ones. Currently we're just barely over a year from bitcoin's all-time-high, though. As the other comment said, we're somewhat in uncharted territory with higher interest rates, but I don't think it will insure a longer winter. It might just keep it from getting quite as high as the ATH for a while, but I think as the rate increases slow down (and especially once they start being cut again) it will start rebounding significantly. Also if that past experience doesn't apply, then it probably doesn't apply for any other non-crypto company that was founded since 2012 (when Coinbase was founded as well). You expecting all of them to go belly up, just because they only existed in the era of low interest rates?
  - dogleash 4y ago
    Are there any rubes left though? The types of people reaching out to me to explain crypto during the last boom makes me think the wells are running dry.
- capableweb 4y ago
  "Crypto winter" doesn't refer to the fact that half of the world is in the "winter season" climate currently but rather a time-period (traditionally lasting longer than a climate "season") when cryptocurrencies prices are at a downturn.
  - TAForObvReasons 4y ago
    "winter" implies there's a forthcoming "spring". Parent is suggesting the possibility of a permanent impairment, that crypto may never "recover" to public interest and price levels seen in the last few years.
cs702 4y ago
Yes. Everything suggests they are prioritizing long-term financial stability and staying power for what could be a really long crypto winter. Many poorly thought-out, poorly executed, and brazenly fraudulent schemes must be fully washed away before the market for this technology can find its footing. Armstrong and his top execs deserve a lot of credit for staying rational over the past few years, while execs at most other firms in the industry seemingly lost their minds and willingly threw themselves into the flames of all sorts of stupid risky schemes destined to burn violently into ash.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

jxm262 4y ago

I've always thought this to be the case. Coinbase and Kraken will be the dominant US players (imho).

msoad 4y ago

"Crypto Industry" only has investors. I have not seen an actual cryptocurrency user that says "I'm here to use this thing"

dvngnt_ 4y ago
they exists but use cases aren't as popular
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
rchaud 4y ago
The kind of things that crypto actually buys (besides NFTs and stablecoins) necessitate a certain level of discretion.

Sohcahtoa82 4y ago

> Coinbase is looking more and more as the lonely survivor positioned to dominate crypto trading in the West. Because it feels like they're the only ones that stay legit while also seeming to take security quite seriously. Everyone else is either a scammer or gets hacked, and I'm convinced at least half of the "hacks" are inside jobs.

WXLCKNO 4y ago
Kraken has the same legitimacy imo.

hgsgm 4y ago

Coinbase is so well run that it will probably outlive cryptocurrency trading, at least briefly.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

Kukumber 4y ago

Coinbase reputation got hit when people found out about their insider trading [1], on top of them hiring ex-wall street people Coinbase also is 10x less volume than Binance [2] You have all of this, then the press who keep advertise them despite the poor metrics, something doesn't sound right I think it's fair to say people made their choice and the choice is Binance The narative can't be forced like with other industries, unless you get help from the press and push some FUD, hmm Or with the help of the CIA with FTX as a poison aimed at Binance, hmm [1] - https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/three-charged-first-ever-cryptocurrency-insider-trading-tipping-scheme https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/three-charged-first-eve... [2] - https://coinmarketcap.com/rankings/exchanges/ https://coinmarketcap.com/rankings/exchanges/

KrakenEng 4y ago
Binance can create its own volume out of thin air. This would be harder for Coinbase, due to their nature as a public company. The truth is, it's hard to know what is happening inside Binance.
- Kukumber 4y ago
  That's true, but that's easy to track, as everything in the blockchain is transparent, that's how people found out about the insider trading at Coinbase

e40 4y ago

Yet, I have an issue with my business account and their support has ghosted me. They kept responding with form letters and I kept telling them they weren't reading my emails, then they stopped. I'm just trying to add a business debit card to a business account. I get an error message that says "business cards are not supported" and their support tells me I have a personal account. What a mess. It's been 3 weeks now.