Business of Blockchain: Bracing Coinbase’s IR Against ‘Crypto Winter’

Coinbase is a crypto-economy technology and infrastructure company on a mission to provide “primary access to the open financial system for a billion people”, as the first publicly traded large-cap crypto exchange. Heading IR since shortly before the April 2021 IPO, Anil Gupta is no stranger to technology and innovation: he spent eight years as director and then director of IR at Facebook after stints in equity research and management consulting. But no MBA or CFA for this accomplished IRO – he graduated in finance and Spanish from Washington University in St Louis.

Coinbase is a crypto-economy technology and infrastructure company on a mission to provide “primary access to the open financial system for a billion people”, as the first publicly traded large-cap crypto exchange. Heading IR since shortly before the April 2021 IPO, Anil Gupta is no stranger to technology and innovation: he spent eight years as director and then director of IR at Facebook after stints in equity research and management consulting. But no MBA or CFA for this accomplished IRO – he graduated in finance and Spanish from Washington University in St Louis.

Gupta and his IR team have a big job navigating the volatility of the crypto world as a new issuer. Coinbase’s share price looks like a skid: from a peak of $369 last November to $67 at the end of September 2022. Headwinds have come from macro factors, including the “crypto winter”, the bankruptcy of some high-profile overextended crypto banks and funds, and the price of Bitcoin – the most traded crypto asset – has lost around 70 percent of its value since the end of last year alongside equally dramatic altcoin price drops.

Gupta and his IR team have a big job navigating the volatility of the crypto world as a new issuer. Coinbase’s share price looks like a skid: from a peak of $369 last November to $67 at the end of September 2022. Headwinds have come from macro factors, including the “crypto winter”, the bankruptcy of some high-profile overextended crypto banks and funds, and the price of Bitcoin – the most traded crypto asset – has lost around 70 percent of its value since the end of last year alongside equally dramatic altcoin price drops.

Coinbase has been quietly building since 2012 and is now ranked among the top three global crypto exchanges by volume, operating in more than 100 countries, with 103 million verified users and 9 million users transacting monthly. But it’s not just about retail: Coinbase continues to diversify into subscription and product services and has a growing list of institutional and Fortune 500 clients that now includes BlackRock and Meta.

A major strategy is the firm’s new self-service wallet that enables Web3 and distributed applications for a next-generation decentralized world, including cross-blockchain interoperability, community governance, and data owned by users and developers instead of centralized companies.

A major strategy is the firm’s new self-service wallet that enables Web3 and distributed applications for a next-generation decentralized world, including cross-blockchain interoperability, community governance, and data owned by users and developers instead of centralized companies.

Since the IPO, Gupta has emphasized the continued importance of the firm’s “egalitarian” approach to openness and transparency, including all shareholders. “For example, our earnings call allows all types of shareholders – large and small – to ask questions of our management team,” he says. “This format works well for us. We find that most of the questions for private investors are also of interest to institutional investors.’ This approach is aided by using Say Technologies for streamlined investor engagement on earnings calls.

This is an excerpt from an article that was published in the Winter 2022 issue of IR Magazine. Click here to read the full article.