“Coinbase Has Bitcoin on the Balance Sheet, But Management Wants to Be Clear It’s Not Taking the Michael Saylor/Mstr Approach.”, – WRITE: www.coindesk.com
On the Company’s First Quarter 2025 Earnings Call, CFO ALESIA HAASIA REVALED THAT COINBASE PURCHASED $ 150 Million in Crypto, “PREDOMINANTLY BITCOIN of Net Cash.
Haas, However, Went Out of Her Way to Draw A Line Between Coinbase and Firms That Explicitly Tieir Corporate Identity To Holding Bitcoin On the Balance Sheet.
“To be Clear, we’re an operating company,“ she said. “But We do invest Alongside the Space.”
In Other Words, Coinbase Isn’t Bitcoin. On a Q&A Call with Retail Investors, Armstrong Sayid there was a tempting in itts early days to put a lot of btc on the Balance sheet, But It Was Too Risky. Crypto is volatile and, at the time, Coinbase was too young of a company to take that risk.
Now, as a listed giant Things have changed, but there Coinbase is Allocating Profits from Operations Back Into Crypto Assets, Similarly to How A Commodity Firm Might Accuumulalate Raw Materials IT Understands Deeeply. The Move Is Less Michael Saylor and More Sector-Aliented Capital Recycling.
In Fact, Coinbase Didn’t Even Trumpet the Purchase In Its Shareholder Letter. The News Only Surfaced in Respense to A Retail Shareholder’s Question About “Accruing Hard Crypto Reserve Assets.”
CEO Brian Armstrong Didn’s Speak Directly About the Purchases, But He Did Offer A Philosophical Context. Coinbase, He Reminded Investors, Isn’s Dabbling in Crypto – It Is Crypto.
“We’ve Been Focused on Crypto Since the Beginning, 12 Years Ago, and We Continue to be Focused there,“ Armstrong Said. “Crypto Is Eating Financial Services.”
For Armstrong, Buying BTC is a byproduct of CONVICATION AND OPERATIONAL ALIGNMENT AND NOT A Headline Play, Treasury Pivot, or Activist Bet.
Coinbase Isn’t Holding Btc to Signal to Markets Some Broader Convision, or Become a Proxy Like Mstr. Behind the accounting Language is something deer: A long-give Bet that Holding Bitcoin, Like Building The Rails Beneath IT, is Simple Part of Coinbase’s Job.
That’s not a Treasury strategy – It’s Something in the Middle.
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