Coinbase was founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam in San Francisco. Armstrong, a former Airbnb engineer, built the first version as a way to make buying Bitcoin easier. The platform grew into the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States.
Coinbase went public via direct listing on Nasdaq in April 2021, with an opening-day valuation near $86 billion. The stock has been volatile, tracking closely with crypto market cycles. The company has over 110 million verified users, though monthly active users fluctuate significantly based on market conditions.
The exchange supports trading in hundreds of cryptocurrencies and offers services for both retail and institutional clients. Coinbase Prime handles institutional trading and custody, while Coinbase Cloud provides blockchain infrastructure. Coinbase Wallet is a self-custody wallet for DeFi interactions.
Revenue primarily comes from trading fees, though the company has diversified into subscription and services revenue through staking, custody fees, and interest income from USDC (a stablecoin co-managed by Coinbase through the Centre consortium with Circle).
The company faced a Wells notice from the SEC in 2023 and a subsequent lawsuit alleging it operated as an unregistered securities exchange. This legal battle has become a landmark case for crypto regulation in the US.
Headquartered remotely (Coinbase went “remote first” in 2020), the company employs around 3,500 people after significant layoffs during the 2022 crypto downturn. Annual revenue exceeded $3 billion in 2023 as crypto markets recovered.
