With the most recent Coinbase quarterly/annual numbers, this market memo aims to provide a short follow-up to our deep dive report, Coinbase: From Sleeping Giant to Industry Leader.

Staying Alive

We will likely look back on 2023 as the pivotal year in which Coinbase finally cemented itself as one of the standout industry leaders. Remember, this most recent cycle was the first in which everyone was ‘really’ paying attention with the Coinbase IPO near enough the pico-top in price and valuations.

And sure enough Coinbase had to weather yet another brutal bear market. But having been founded in June 2012 and being a true crypto OG, Coinbase was not caught swimming naked, like many other industry participants.

Over the years, Coinbase’s OG bona fides have meant different things. In the beginning, Coinbase was a disrupter. A brash startup operating at the bounds of legality. But things are different now. Today, Coinbase is a well-run, highly regulated, and very traditional corporation. Part of this is by design: it’s a public company! But mostly, it’s due to deliberate operational conservatism.

– Coinbase: From Sleeping Giant to Industry Leader

Staying alive is arguably the most important lesson that crypto participa