In the words of Brian Armstrong, “Last year in 2021, we did about $7 billion of revenue and about $4 billion of positive EBITDA, and this year with everything coming down, it’s looking, you know, about roughly half that or less.”
Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, said the exchange’s annual revenue in 2022 may drop by over 50% due to bearish market trends coupled with the collapse of FTX.
Armstrong’s estimations of Coinbase’s revenue were synonymous with the $3.2B predicted by analysts. Data analysis firm Refinitve expects Coinbase’s revenue for Q3 2022 to tank over 75%. The prices of Coinbase’s shares have also plummeted by 80% since April.
Referring to FTX’s downfall, the CEO of Coinbase claimed the fiasco occurred due to a “massive fraud” instead of accounting-related errors. Armstrong agreed that the exchange’s collapse was “a bit of a black mark” on the crypto industry. He also noted that FTX’s collapse was similar to the Enron and Bernie Madoff scandals.
“It appears that they took customer funds from their exchange and actually commingled them or moved them into their hedge fund and then ended up in a very underwater position.”
Despite several crypto platforms declaring bankruptcy in 2022, Armstrong remains positive about the future of crypto. He revealed his plans to continue advocating for crypto on Capitol Hill, and added that the FTX fiasco will serve as a wake-up call for US regulators.
