We present an in-depth look at the Fortune 500 leading Cryptocurrency marketplace, Coinbase Global Inc. With a detailed analysis of the recent significant events for stock symbol COIN. Brought to you by Digital Financial Market
Coinbase (Coin) Stock Overview
Coinbase Global held its public Initial Public Offering at about $330 a Share in Summer of 2021. Later that year, Bitcoin had reached its height of about $69,000 in November of 2021 and COIN had peaked at 368.90 per Share on Nov. 9th of 2021.
Coinbase itself is compromised of a centralized exchange, called Coinbase, where cryptocurrencies be purchased, exchanged, or sent through the blockchain to other wallets and exchanges. Coinbase Global Inc. facilitates the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange and participates in the development of cryptocurrency technologies, blockchain projects, and venture capital.
Coinbase Price Chart
Coinbase (Coin) Historical Price Chart
Coinbase CEO
The Coinbase CEO is Brian Armstrong. He is unrelated to Athlete Lance Armstrong or famous Astronaut Neil Armstrong, however popular memes has been circulating the internet joking on the similarity of their last names.
Brian Armstrong is a long term believer in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and digital ledger blockchain technology across industries. He also is crowned the Richest Executive in Crypto with notable achievement of attaining Billionaire status and purchasing one of the most expensive homes in Los Angeles for $133 Million in 2021.
Coinbase Ventures and Blockchain Growth
The venture capital branch of Coinbase Global Inc. has developed many projects and funded many expanded companies that base their technology in blockchain cryptocurrencies. They have had a notable presence in many Ethereum Based Tokens, which distribute their network tokens through the ERC-20 Protocol on Ethereum Mainnet.
Coinbase Exchange Application
The application and exchange began as a very small and simple interface. With only a few tokens available in the first years, First Bitcoin (BTC), then Ethereum (ETH), and Thirdly Litecoin (LTC). It later grew to have over 70+ cryptocurrencies by the beginning of 2022.
Coinbase Wallet
Coinbase Wallet is an app that is either for mobile or a browser plug in for chrome browser extensions. The Coinbase Wallet operates primarily on the Ethereum (ETH) Blockchain and wallet/network interfaces.
Coinbase & Amazon Inc.
Coinbase has a notable and publicly disclosed Cloud hosting contract with AWS, Amazon Web Services, which came to light in the Dec 2021 Crypto Crash that began from a widespread AWS outage which shut down all of Coinbase Exchange temporarily. After the outage, the crypto market saw sharp decreases in prices and an ongoing sell-off of crypto assets.
Crypto Winter 2022
By the end of December 2021, Coinbase ran into issues after the AWS Outage, and global political factors shut down 20% of the bitcoin hashrate, dropping the Bitcoin transaction speed (Measured in TPS). Continued speculation and fear over an inflation crisis in the American economy caused a swift exit of crypto funding from larger investor groups.
Many took heavy losses as the crypto decline had intensified in May of 2022 over a Stablecoin Collapse from Terra LUNA token and USD counterpart UST crashing 99%. Coinbase as a company has experienced 3 crypto winters prior to 2021, including the Crypto Bubble & Crash of 2017-2018.
By June of 2022, Coinbase makes an announcement that it will be reduced staff and laying off team members. See our Full Article on the Coinbase Layoffs of June 2022.
Coinbase SEC Investigation
Coinbase has an investigation open by the Securities and Equities Commission (SEC) in mid 2022 in regard to the classification of certain Cryptocurrencies as Securities (Thus Under Regulation of Financial Laws). This claim was countered by Coinbase Executive and CLO, Paul Grewal, who states:
Coinbase Responds To Cryptocurrency as Security Claim
I’m happy to say it again and again: we are confident that our rigorous diligence process—a process the SEC has already reviewed—keeps securities off our platform, and we look forward to engaging with the SEC on the matter. A refresher: https://t.co/SaacvrZEiU
— paulgrewal.eth (@iampaulgrewal) July 26, 2022
SEC Investigation: Coinbase Holds Ground
Coinbase holds the policy that cryptocurrencies are not legal securities, and Coinbase executives encourage compliance with financial regulators. Despite this stance, many regulators and finance professionals have made counter arguments and even lawsuits.
Coinbase Takes on Class-Action Lawsuits
Another lawsuit arose out of the ambiguity of this case, two Law Firms named Bragar Eagel & Squire and Pomerantz LLP are filing to sue Coinbase for damages over deceptive business practices and Securities Fraud.
See Article on Coinbase Hit With Lawsuits by Coin Telegraph
SEC Investigation Leads to Insider Trading Scandal
Additional probes into Coinbase led to an individual Wire Fraud case in which a former Product Manager from Coinbase is being tried for having disclosed insider information by tipping family members and friends.
Coinbase Insider Trading Lawsuit
The former Product Manager at Coinbase Global Inc, Ishan Wahi, was recently investigated and tried in court for the insider trading of Cryptocurrencies. He is accused of these charges by means of tipping his brother Nikhil Wahi and friend Sameer Ramani about upcoming token launches on the platform, disclosing insider information that allowed for unfair capital gains.
$1.5 Million Coinbase Insider Trading Lawsuit
The trial and verdict of the accumulated $1.5 Million in charges across the 3 individuals are still ongoing as of late 2022. The Manhattan court is officially assigning Wire Fraud charges against Nikhil & Ishan Wahi, currently held at a $1 Million Bail, and Sameer Ramani, who authorities say remains at large.
Coinbase Manager Pleads Not Guilty
In August of 2022, both brothers Nikhil & Ishan Wahi pleaded not guilty to counts of Wire Fraud and Insider Trading. Their lawyer made arguments that the cryptocurrencies involved were not considered securities and that the information shared was not considered confidential.
See the Reuters News Report on Coinbase Insider Trading Scandal
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