Coinbase Global 10-K 2024-12-31
Filed 2025-02-13. 24 sections, 787K characters. Original on sec.gov · Markdown · JSON
Cover and table of contents
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
(Mark One)
| ☒ | ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 | ||||
| For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024 | |||||
| OR | |||||
| ☐ | TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 | ||||
| For the transition period from to |
Commission file number 001-40289
Coinbase Global, Inc.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
| Delaware | One Madison Avenue Suite 2400 New York, NY | 10010 | 46-4707224 | ||||||||
| (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) | (Address of principal executive offices)1 | (Zip Code) | (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) |
Not Applicable
(Registrant's telephone number, including area code)1
Not Applicable
(Former name, former address and former fiscal year, if changed since last report)
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
| Title of each class | Trading Symbol(s) | Name of each exchange on which registered | ||||||
| Class A common stock, $0.00001 par value per share | COIN | The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC |
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☒ No ☐
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. Large accelerated filer ☒ Non-accelerated filer ☐ Accelerated filer ☐ Smaller reporting company ☐ Emerging growth company ☐
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☒
If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No ☒
The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant on June 30, 2024, the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, was $44.6 billion based on the closing sales price of the registrant’s Class A common stock as reported on Nasdaq Global Select Market on that date.
As of February 6, 2025, the number of shares of the registrant's Class A common stock outstanding was 210,155,374 and the number of shares of the registrant's Class B common stock outstanding was 43,724,093.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement for its 2025 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, or Proxy Statement, to be filed within 120 days after the end of the fiscal year covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K, are incorporated by reference in Part III. Except with respect to information specifically incorporated by reference in this Annual Report, the Proxy Statement shall not be deemed to be filed as part hereof.
1 We are a remote-first company. Accordingly, we do not maintain a headquarters. We are including this address solely for the purpose of satisfying the Securities and Exchange Commission’s request. Stockholder communications may also be sent to the email address: secretary@coinbase.com.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Glossary to the Cryptoeconomy
Throughout this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we use a number of industry terms and concepts which are defined as follows:
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Address**: An alphanumeric reference to where crypto assets can be sent or stored.
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Bitcoin**: The first peer-to-peer electronic cash system of global, decentralized, scarce, digital money as initially introduced in a white paper titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System by Satoshi Nakamoto.
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Block**: Synonymous with digital pages in a ledger. Blocks are added to an existing blockchain as transactions occur on the network. Miners are rewarded for “mining” a new block.
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Blockchain**: A cryptographically secure digital ledger that maintains a record of all transactions that occur on the network and follows a consensus protocol for confirming new blocks to be added to the blockchain.
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Cold storage**: The storage of private keys in any fashion that is disconnected from the internet. Common cold storage examples include offline computers, USB drives, or paper records.
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Crypto**: A broad term for any cryptography-based market, system, application, or decentralized network.
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Crypto asset or token**: Any digital asset built using blockchain technology, including cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and security tokens.
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Cryptocurrency**: Bitcoin and alternative coins, or “altcoins,” launched after the success of Bitcoin. This category of crypto asset is designed to work as a medium of exchange, store of value, or to power applications and excludes security tokens.
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Cryptoeconomy**: A new open financial system built upon crypto.
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Dapps**: Decentralized applications, or Dapps, are applications that run on a decentralized network, typically using blockchain technology.
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DeFi**: Short for Decentralized Finance. Peer-to-peer software-based network of protocols that can be used to facilitate traditional financial services like borrowing, lending, trading derivatives, insurance, and more through smart contracts.
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Ethereum**: A decentralized global computing platform that supports smart contract transactions and peer-to-peer applications, or “Ether,” the native crypto assets on the Ethereum network.
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Fork**: A fundamental change to the software underlying a blockchain which results in two different blockchains, the original, and the new version. In some instances, the fork results in the creation of a new token.
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Hot wallet**: A wallet that is connected to the internet, enabling it to broadcast transactions.
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Layer 1 (L1) Blockchain**: The foundational blockchain that provides essential services like recording transactions and ensuring security.
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Layer 2 (L2) Blockchain**: This refers to network protocols layered on top of a L1 Blockchain. L2 Blockchains utilize the infrastructure of L1 Blockchains but offer greater flexibility in scaling, transaction processing and improving overall network throughput.
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Miner**: Individuals or entities who operate a computer or group of computers that add new transactions to blocks and verify blocks created by other miners. Miners collect transaction fees and are rewarded with new tokens for their services.
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Mining**: The process by which new blocks are created, and thus new transactions are added to the blockchain.
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Network**: The collection of all nodes that use computing power to maintain the ledger and add new blocks to the blockchain. Most networks are decentralized, reducing the risk of a single point of failure.
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Node**: A computer or group of computers that supports the operations of a blockchain network, by validating blocks, executing smart contracts, or storing copies of the blockchain available for other nodes in the network to establish consensus.
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Onchain**: Onchain typically refers to activities or processes that occur directly on a blockchain. It involves transactions, smart contracts, or any other operations that are recorded and executed within the blockchain network itself, as opposed to offchain activities that might occur outside the blockchain system.
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Protocol**: A type of algorithm or software that governs how a blockchain operates.
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Public key or private key**: Each public address has a corresponding public key and private key that are cryptographically generated. A private key allows the recipient to access any funds belonging to the address, similar to a bank account password. A public key helps validate transactions that are broadcasted to and from the address. Addresses are shortened versions of public keys, which are derived from private keys.
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Security token**: A crypto asset that is a security under the U.S. federal securities laws. This includes digital forms of traditional equity or fixed income securities, or may be assets deemed to be a security based on their characterization as an investment contract or note.
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Self-custodied Walle**t: A self-custodied wallet, also known as a self-hosted wallet, is a type of cryptocurrency wallet where the user holds the private keys, instead of a third-party.
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Smart contract**: Software that digitally facilitates or enforces a rules-based agreement or terms between transacting parties.
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Stablecoin**: Crypto assets designed to minimize price volatility. A stablecoin is designed to track the price of an underlying asset such as fiat money or an exchange-traded commodity (such as precious metals or industrial metals), while other stablecoins utilize algorithms that are designed to maintain a relative stable price of the asset. Stablecoins can be backed by fiat money, physical commodities or other crypto assets.
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Staking**: An energy efficient equivalent of mining. Stakers use their tokens to validate transactions and create blocks. In exchange for this service, stakers earn a reward.
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Supported crypto assets**: The crypto assets we support for trading and custody on our platform, which include crypto assets for trading and crypto assets under custody.
For additional information regarding our key business metrics, which include Monthly Transacting Users, Assets on Platform, and Trading Volume as well as our use of Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, see the sections titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Key Business Metrics” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Non-GAAP Financial Measure” in Part II, Item 7 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements. All statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K other than statements of historical fact, including statements regarding our future operating results and financial position, our business strategy, and plans, market growth, and our objectives for future operations, are forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as “believe,” “may,” “will,” “estimate,” “potential,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “expect,” “could,” “would,” “project,” “plan,” “target,” or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions.
Forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K include, but are not limited to, statements about:
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our future financial performance, including our expectations regarding our net revenue, operating expenses, and our ability to achieve and maintain future profitability;
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our business plan and our ability to effectively manage any growth;
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anticipated trends, growth rates, and challenges in our business, the cryptoeconomy, the price, and market capitalization of crypto assets and in the markets in which we operate;
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market acceptance of our products and services;
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beliefs and objectives for future operations;
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our ability to maintain, expand, and further penetrate our existing customer base;
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our ability to develop new products and services and grow our business in response to changing technologies, customer demand, and competitive pressures;
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our expectations concerning relationships with third parties;
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our ability to maintain, protect, and enhance our intellectual property;
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our ability to continue to expand internationally;
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the effects of increased competition in our markets and our ability to compete effectively;
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future acquisitions of or investments in complementary companies, products, services, or technologies and our ability to successfully integrate such companies or assets;
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our ability to stay in compliance with laws and regulations that currently apply or become applicable to our business both in the United States and internationally given the highly evolving and uncertain regulatory landscape;
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general macroeconomic conditions, including interest rates, inflation, instability in the global banking system, economic downturns, and other global events, including regional wars and conflicts and government shutdowns;
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economic and industry trends, projected growth, or trend analysis;
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trends in revenue;
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trends in operating expenses, including technology and development expenses, sales and marketing expenses, and general and administrative expenses, as well as certain variable expenses, and expectations regarding these expenses as a percentage of revenue;
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our key business metrics used to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business, and make strategic decisions;
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our plans with respect to the Share Repurchase Program; and
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other statements regarding our future operations, financial condition, and prospects and business strategies.
We caution you that the foregoing list may not contain all of the forward-looking statements made in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. We have based the forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K on our current expectations and projections about future events and trends that we believe may affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects. The outcome of the events described in these forward-looking statements is subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors, including those described in the section titled “Risk Factors” in Part I, Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all risks and uncertainties that could have an impact on any forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We cannot assure you that the results, events, and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur, and actual results, events, or circumstances could differ materially from those described in such forward-looking statements.
Neither we nor any other person assume responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of any of these forward-looking statements. Moreover, the forward-looking statements made in this Annual Report on Form 10-K relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. Our forward-looking statements do not reflect the potential impact of any future acquisitions, mergers, dispositions, restructurings, joint ventures, partnerships, or investments we may make.
In addition, statements that “we believe” and similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based upon information available to us as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, and while we believe such information forms a reasonable basis for such statements, such information may be limited or incomplete, and our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all potentially available relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain, and investors are cautioned not to unduly rely upon these statements.
RISK FACTORS SUMMARY
Consistent with the foregoing, our business is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those risks discussed at length below. These risks include, among others, the following, which we consider our most material risks:
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Our operating results have and will significantly fluctuate, including due to the highly volatile nature of crypto;
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Our total revenue is substantially dependent on the prices of crypto assets and volume of transactions conducted on our platform. If such price or volume declines, our business, operating results, and financial condition would be adversely affected and the price of our Class A common stock could decline;
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Our net revenue may be concentrated in a limited number of areas. Within transaction revenue and subscription and services revenue, a meaningful concentration is from transactions in Bitcoin and Ethereum and stablecoin revenue in connection with USDC, respectively. If revenue from these areas declines and is not replaced by new demand for crypto assets or other products and services, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected;
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We have in the past, and may in the future, enter into partnerships, collaborations, joint ventures, or strategic alliances with third parties. If we are unsuccessful in establishing or maintaining strategic relationships with these third parties or if these third parties fail to deliver certain operational services, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected;
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Interest rate fluctuations could negatively impact us;
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The future development and growth of crypto is subject to a variety of factors that are difficult to predict and evaluate. If crypto does not grow as we expect, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected;
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Cyberattacks and security breaches of our platform, or those impacting our customers or third parties, could adversely affect our brand, reputation, business, operating results, and financial condition;
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We are subject to an extensive, highly-evolving and uncertain regulatory landscape and any adverse changes to, or our failure to comply with, any laws and regulations could adversely affect our brand, reputation, business, operating results, and financial condition;
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We operate in a highly competitive industry and we compete against unregulated or less regulated companies and companies with greater financial and other resources, and our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected if we are unable to compete effectively;
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We compete against a growing number of decentralized and noncustodial platforms and our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected if we fail to compete effectively;
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As we continue to expand and localize our international activities, our obligations to comply with the laws, rules, regulations, and policies of a variety of jurisdictions will increase and we may be subject to inquiries, investigations, and enforcement actions by U.S. and non-U.S. regulators and governmental authorities, including those related to sanctions, export control, and anti-money laundering;
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We are, and may continue to be, subject to material litigation, including individual and class action lawsuits, as well as investigations and enforcement actions by regulators and governmental authorities. These matters are often expensive and time consuming, and, if resolved adversely, could adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition;
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If we cannot keep pace with rapid industry changes to provide new and innovative products and services, the use of our products and services, and consequently our net revenue, could decline, which could adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition;
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A particular crypto asset, product or service’s status as a “security” in any relevant jurisdiction is subject to a high degree of uncertainty and if we are unable to properly characterize a crypto asset or product offering, we may be subject to regulatory scrutiny, inquiries, investigations, fines, and other penalties, which could adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition;
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We currently rely on third-party service providers for certain aspects of our operations, and any interruptions in services provided by these third parties may impair our ability to support our customers;
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Loss of a critical banking or insurance relationship could adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition;
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Any significant disruption in our products and services, in our information technology systems, or in any of the blockchain networks we support, could result in a loss of customers or funds and adversely affect our brand, reputation, business, operating results, and financial condition;
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Our failure to securely store and manage our and our customers’ fiat currencies and crypto assets could adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition; and
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The theft, loss, or destruction of private keys required to access any crypto assets held in custody for our own account or for our customers may be irreversible. If we are unable to access our private keys or if we experience a hack or other data loss relating to our ability to access any crypto assets, it could cause regulatory scrutiny, reputational harm, and other losses.
PART I
Item 1. BUSINESS
Coinbase Overview
Our mission is to increase economic freedom in the world.
We are working to update the century-old financial system by providing a trusted platform that makes it easy for our customers to engage with crypto assets. We also provide critical infrastructure for the onchain economy and support builders who share our vision of bringing the world onchain. Onchain activities are interactions with the blockchain that take place in a broad category of blockchain-powered technologies, including self-custody wallets, decentralized apps and services, and open community engagement platforms. Together with the crypto community, we advocate for responsible rules to make the benefits of crypto available around the world.
We differentiate ourselves from our competition with:
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Trust**:** We are deeply invested in building the most secure and compliant platform. We hold customer assets one-to-one at all times. We do not act on customer assets, including staking, lending, rehypothecating, or engaging in fractional reserve banking, without customer consent.
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Ease of use**:** We strive to build products that are easy to use and that our customers love. We obsess over quality and craft in our products. We strive to make buying, storing, and using crypto easy.
Our Business
We offer products and services to three customer groups:
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Consumers****:** Retail customers seeking to invest in or trade crypto assets and engage onchain.
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Institutions****:** Businesses that include market makers, asset managers, hedge funds, banks, wealth platforms, registered investment advisors, payment platforms, and public and private corporations.
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Developers****:** Entrepreneurs, creators, merchants, crypto asset issuers, organizations and financial institutions, and other groups building decentralized protocols, applications, products, or other services onchain.
Our platform serves as a trusted and compliant on-ramp to the onchain economy and enables our users to engage in a wide variety of activities with their crypto assets in both our own proprietary and third-party product experiences enabled by access to decentralized applications. Our business consists of
products that we monetize through transaction fees, such as our consumer trading product suite, as well as subscription products and services, such as our stablecoin products. We describe these products below. Throughout this Annual Report on Form 10-K, we will refer to our full suite of products and offerings as our platform or platforms.
Transaction products
Consumer trading
Our platform is designed to serve a wide variety of consumers, whether they are buying their first crypto asset or are advanced traders. We offer two trading experiences:
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Simple trade: Our simple trading experience offers customers the ability to buy, sell, and convert crypto assets using the basic interface of our platform, and includes value-added services such as fixed price quotes and recurring trades. Simple trading focuses on consumers of all experience levels who are prioritizing ease of use.
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Advanced trade: Our advanced trading experience offers traders access to spot and derivatives order books, real-time market information through interactive charts, a live trade history on the advanced trade view, and other trading tools. Advanced trading focuses on sophisticated traders who are prioritizing a robust set of features to meet their more complex needs and higher volume.
We generate fees from consumers trading on our platform, including through volume-based transaction fees and a spread depending on the type of trade. Simple trading and advanced trading fees differ due to both the typical nature of the transactions and unique benefits of each offering. Generally, simple trading fees are higher than those on advanced trading because advanced traders typically trade at higher volumes than simple traders.
Prime Trading
Coinbase Prime is our full-service prime brokerage platform, where our institutional customers can access deep pools of liquidity across a network of trading venues. We offer volume-based pricing and charge a transaction fee for executed trades.
Markets
We provide market infrastructure in the form of trading venues for customers to trade spot and derivatives. We currently provide access to three trading venues: the Coinbase Exchange, the Coinbase International Exchange, and the Coinbase Derivatives Exchange. These markets generate revenue by charging a transaction fee for executed trades.
Base Protocol
Base is an L2 Ethereum blockchain offering fast, cheap, global onchain transactions. In 2024, Base reduced median transaction fees by more than 90% to enable sub-one cent median transactions. Base’s goal is to bring one million developers and one billion users onchain to build a global economy. Base aspires to be the best place to build applications, create content, and earn money onchain. Coinbase generates revenue from sequencer fees paid each time a transaction is processed on the Base blockchain.
Coinbase Wallet
Coinbase Wallet is a self-custodial wallet software product, which we offer globally. Coinbase Wallet enables users to engage and transact with the full universe of Dapps and actively engage in the onchain economy without the need for a centralized intermediary. Customers can also link their Coinbase account to their Coinbase Wallet to more easily transfer assets between the two. In 2024, Coinbase launched “smart wallet,” which is an improved self-custody technology that enables instant onboarding with no separate app or extension, and no need to memorize a seed phrase. Coinbase Wallet now includes smart
wallet compatibility. A benefit of Coinbase Wallet is that consumers have sole control over their private keys and/or seed phrase, which are stored directly on their mobile devices or personal storage accounts and not with a centralized entity. Because the private key is unilaterally controlled by the user, Coinbase is unable to assist in recovery in the event a user loses their key or seed phrase.
Subscription products and other services
Stablecoins
Stablecoins play a key role in updating the financial system and advancing economic freedom by combining the benefits of crypto rails, which are global, cheap, and fast, with an asset that is stable relative to fiat currencies. We offer a variety of stablecoins denominated in multiple fiat currencies on our platform, and we continue to explore partnerships with a number of stablecoin issuers to expand our offerings.
In 2018, we partnered with Circle Internet Financial, LLC (“Circle”) to launch USDC, with the goal of driving global, mainstream adoption of stablecoins. Circle and its affiliate, Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS, are the issuers of USDC, a stablecoin redeemable on a one-to-one basis for U.S. dollars, and Circle Internet Financial Europe SAS is the issuer of EURC, a stablecoin redeemable on a one-to-one basis for Euros. In August 2023, we entered into an updated arrangement with Circle to (i) support USDC; (ii) help drive long-term success of the stablecoin ecosystem; and (iii) share in the economics of the reserves backing stablecoins in circulation both on and off our platform (the “Circle Agreement”). Pursuant to the Circle Agreement, Circle pays us for our role in the growth of USDC: the greater the proportion of USDC in circulation generally and on our platform, the greater our revenue generated under the Circle Agreement. The Circle Agreement has an initial three-year term. Upon completion of the initial term, we and Circle will discuss in good faith whether any modifications to the Circle Agreement are warranted. If such modifications are not agreed upon, the Circle Agreement will automatically renew for additional three-year terms unless we or Circle fail to meet ongoing obligations under the Circle Agreement.
We and Circle may, from time to time, enter into arrangements with third parties approved by both us and Circle (such third parties, “approved participants”) that provide for fees to be paid to such approved participants to increase the circulation of stablecoins subject to the Circle Agreement. In anticipation of such arrangements, in November 2024, we and Circle entered into a supplement to the Circle Agreement, pursuant to which we and Circle will agree upon the fees that such third parties are eligible to receive and the undertakings to be required of them upon becoming an approved participant. We have filed a copy of the Circle Agreement and its 2024 supplement as exhibits to this Annual Report on Form 10-K in order to provide investors with additional information about this partnership.
Historically, we have observed that customers holding USDC on our platform are more likely to use other products such as trading. Therefore, where permitted, we pay rewards to both consumer and institutional customers who hold USDC to incentivize on-platform balances and deeper engagement with our product suite. In 2024, we began paying rewards onchain to customers holding USDC balances in Coinbase Wallet.
Staking
Staking is one of our most popular services. Certain blockchain protocols, such as Ethereum and Solana, rely on staking to validate blockchain transactions, an essential operation to these protocols’ operations and an alternative consensus mechanism to mining. Network participants can designate a certain amount of their crypto assets on the network to validate transactions and earn rewards. Today, many users choose to outsource the technical processes involved in staking by staking through a service provider.
We provide an onchain staking service, which allows our customers to stake their assets with a few clicks. Our customers maintain full ownership of their crypto assets while earning staking rewards. Customers who stake their assets receive compensation, paid out by applicable blockchain protocols, in
the form of the network’s crypto asset. The rewards rates, expressed as an annual percentage yield, vary by asset. In return for the services we provide, we earn a fixed percentage commission on all staking rewards received.
Because staking rewards depend on the relevant protocol and network conditions, the estimated rewards rate for each asset made available for staking is displayed on our website and through our platform, and is calculated by periodically consulting onchain data to determine the total amount. We only facilitate staking of a consumer’s crypto assets in response to a direct instruction from that consumer, and the staked crypto assets remain the property of the consumer and in our custody while staked. According to certain protocol rules, staked crypto assets cannot be sold or transferred while they remain staked, and we do not use or allocate consumers’ staked crypto assets for any other purpose.
Subject to jurisdiction, we support eight staking assets through our platform for consumers as of December 31, 2024: Cardano (ADA), Avalanche (AVAX), Cosmos (ATOM), Polkadot (DOT), Ethereum (ETH), MATIC (POL), Solana (SOL), and Tezos (XTZ). As of December 31, 2024, approximately $15.2 billion worth of these assets were held on behalf of individual consumers staked through our platform, as adjusted to USD.
For our institutional customers, our staking process varies by customer. In addition to operating our own validator nodes to provide staking services, we utilize third-party service providers to operate validator nodes on our customers’ behalf. Institutional customers receive rewards directly from the protocol as we do not stake on behalf of these customers. The fees we charge to institutional customers depend on the customer agreement and the selected service. As of December 31, 2024, over $8.1 billion worth of assets were staked by institutional customers through Coinbase Prime, as adjusted to USD.
We also operate a cbETH token wrapping service. cbETH is an Ethereum-based “wrapped staking token” that represents ownership of ETH staked through our platform. Eligible customers can obtain cbETH tokens by wrapping their staked ETH or by purchasing cbETH tokens on our exchange or on third-party exchanges. A cbETH holder can sell or transfer their cbETH within the Coinbase app or send cbETH to a self-custody wallet or to other addresses on the Ethereum blockchain. Selling or otherwise transferring cbETH automatically transfers ownership of the underlying staked ETH, along with any rewards earned.
There are risks associated with our staking services, which are described in the risk factor in the section titled “Risk Factors” in Part I, Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K: “We may suffer losses due to staking, delegating, and other related services provided to our customers.”
Custody
We offer an institutional-grade custody platform with a highly secure cold storage solution both within the United States and globally. We charge institutions a separate fee based on the total assets stored in custody on our platform. For example, we serve as a custodian for several Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF issuers. In 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) approved 11 spot Bitcoin ETF applications, nine of which partner with Coinbase, and nine Ethereum ETF applications, eight of which partner with Coinbase. We do not charge our consumers a separate fee to safely store their crypto assets on our platform. We discuss our custodial practices for both institutions and consumers in further detail below.
Coinbase One
Coinbase One is a consumer subscription product for which consumers pay a monthly or annual fee to unlock a variety of benefits, including limited reduced transaction fee trading, higher staking and USDC rewards than non-Coinbase One subscribers, priority customer service support, and offers from third-party partners. In 2024, we launched an additional subscription tier, Coinbase One Premium, offering consumers enhanced benefits, including unlimited zero trading fees on simple trading and concierge support for a higher subscription fee.
Institutional financing
Financing is an increasingly important offering to our institutional customers. We offer integrated financing products and services to institutional customers that meet our credit criteria to access liquidity for their hedging, trading, and working capital needs.
Our lending product set includes tools to allow clients to trade in real time, products that enable leverage and short access across our Prime and Markets offerings, and structured loans supporting client working capital and other needs.
In addition to lending, we borrow fiat and crypto assets, including USDC, from third parties, including eligible institutional customers, to facilitate our financing products. We also offer a managed lending product for eligible institutional customers under our Agency Lending offering.
The terms of our lending and borrowing arrangements may vary modestly from customer to customer. For additional information, see Note 4. Collateralized Arrangements and Financing, of the Notes to our Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and Risk Factors—We provide secured loans to our customers, which exposes us to credit risks and may cause us to incur financial or reputational harm included in Part I, Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Coinbase developer platform
Our developer platform combines a suite of developer tools to enable crypto developers to build in the onchain ecosystem. We offer APIs to simplify a variety of key activities, including crypto payments and trading, data access, staking, and more. Coinbase Developer Platform enables developers to build crypto into their products faster and to simplify how they interact with blockchains.
Trusted crypto platform
Coinbase is the most trusted crypto platform.
We place great importance on securely storing crypto assets, and we have policies and procedures to help ensure the proper storing of the crypto assets we hold on behalf of our customers and for our own investment and operating purposes. When customers use our platform, their assets remain their assets. We store crypto assets using proprietary technology and operational processes. Crypto assets are not insured or guaranteed by any government or government agency; however, we have worked hard to securely store our customers’ crypto assets and our own crypto assets for investment and operational purposes with legal and operational protections.
Further, we appropriately ledger, properly segregate, and maintain separate accounts for our corporate crypto assets and customers’ crypto assets. Additionally, with respect to Coinbase entities that provide cold storage custody services, such as Coinbase Custody Trust Company, LLC (“CCTC”) and Coinbase Custody International Limited, crypto assets are held separately in dedicated addresses and ledgered using a proprietary combination of hardware security modules. For Coinbase entities that provide crypto trading services, such as Coinbase, Inc., crypto assets are held in an omnibus manner on the blockchain and separately recorded using a ledger system. Additionally, as a U.S. public company, we are required to undergo annual audits and quarterly reviews, which, among other things, require that our independent registered public accounting firm reviews and audits our internal controls and reconciliation processes. Moreover, our various user, custody, and client agreements outline the applicability of Uniform Commercial Code (“UCC”) Article 8 to custodied crypto assets. UCC Article 8 provides that financial assets held by Coinbase for its customers are not property of Coinbase and not subject to claims of our general creditors.
New customers must meet some minimum criteria to engage on our platforms. When signing up for an account on our platform, among other requirements, consumer, and institutional customers must
certify that they are at least eighteen (18) years of age (if a natural person), agree to a user agreement and privacy policy, and satisfy the requirements of our robust know-your-customer (“KYC”) program.
Our products, services and educational offerings incorporate a holistic, customer-centric set of digital engagement practices, including educational content and notifications, which are designed, in part, to promote financial literacy and awareness and to provide customers with guidance and information to help them make better informed decisions about their crypto activity. Examples of these offerings include, among others: (i) educational materials, including but not limited to an online collection of how-to guides and tutorials, a crypto developments newsletter, Coinbase Bytes, and our learning rewards program, a video content-driven educational platform available on our Coinbase app and our website, through which customers can earn small rewards, paid out in cryptocurrency, upon successful completion of a video and a short quiz on a range of topics related to the cryptoeconomy, (ii) in-app engagement, including features designed to enable consumers to start small and build crypto asset holdings with confidence over time, including through rewards to customers in connection with the completion of certain milestones, (iii) sweepstakes, and (iv) differentiated marketing, including paid digital and social media marketing campaigns, as well as email campaigns, search engage optimization, in-app banners, push and pop-up notifications, paid search marketing, and affiliate marketing.
For additional information, see Risk Factors—Laws and regulations regarding conflicts of interest associated with the use of predictive data analytics, digital engagement practices, and similar technologies, if adopted and found to be applicable to our business, may require us to modify, limit, or discontinue our use of certain technologies and features contained within our products and services and may impact the way that we interact with existing and prospective customers, which could adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition included in Part I, Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Custodial practices
We utilize both hot wallets and cold wallets in our custodial solutions. We actively manage wallet balances and generally seek to hold no more than 2% of custodied assets in hot wallets at any given time. Cold wallet private key materials are stored and secured at facilities within the United States and internationally. We store the substantial majority of our own crypto asset holdings utilizing the same storage solutions that we provide to our customers. In limited cases, we use storage solutions not offered to our customers to store immaterial amounts of crypto held for corporate purposes outside of our core custodial product offerings. Additionally, our Coinbase Asset Management offering utilizes both Coinbase and third parties as custodians.
As part of our risk mitigation efforts, wallet private keys are not stored in plaintext format in any location and the cryptographic consensus of multiple human operators is required to decrypt a private key for both hot and cold wallets. No single individual has control of Coinbase’s wallet private keys. To the extent a customer withdrawal requires movement of assets from a cold wallet, authority to release proceeds from such wallet resides with a geographically distributed team of professionals, all of whom are subject to background checks as part of the onboarding process.
We perform internal audits of the private key management process and reconciliations between Coinbase wallets and third-party blockchain data. Coinbase, Inc. and CCTC, the two subsidiaries that custody the majority of crypto assets on platform, are also periodically examined by a variety of regulators, including the New York State Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) and various states in which such entities hold money transmission licenses. In the event of an insurable loss of assets for which we file a claim, we may be expected to allow our insurance providers to inspect custodied assets in the course of their investigation of such claim.
We do not use third-party sub-custodians, where one custodian holds assets on behalf of another custodian, in connection with the storage of digital assets. In accordance with applicable state money transmitter laws, we hold U.S. customers’ cash at FDIC-insured depository institutions, NCUSIF-insured credit unions, and in money market funds in accounts explicitly named to further demonstrate that we are
holding the funds as custodian. We believe the terms of the relevant account agreements to be comparable to those offered to similar companies.
Other policies and procedures
We also have policies in place to help us govern accounting controls, including customer account initiations and reconciliations, and to help prevent improper self-dealing and other conflicts of interest between us and our customers on our platform. When we make investments in crypto assets, we execute investment trades away from our platform to avoid any conflict of interest with our customers. Additionally, Coinbase is committed to providing a fair, transparent, and equitable experience across our suite of trading products. Crypto assets and use cases are rapidly expanding and Coinbase seeks to offer our customers access to all assets and use cases where it is safe and legal to do so. For example, we take a number of steps to mitigate conflicts in our digital asset listing process. We have a digital asset support group that is composed of senior leaders from our product, legal, compliance, and finance departments. The digital asset support group reviews the relevant aspects of any asset escalated to it in connection with a listing on our platform in accordance with our digital asset support policies and procedures that are designed to mitigate conflicts. Only the digital asset support group decides which of these escalated assets we can and cannot list on our platform, and it does not coordinate such decisions with anyone outside of the committee. We also have policies and procedures that require committee members to recuse themselves from asset listing decisions where a committee member may have a conflict of interest. We have seen an increase in the rate of assets created and increased demand for listings, and we continue to evaluate our processes to meet this increased demand.
Further, we carefully handle and keep customer data confidential through security and encryption as well as policies, training, and monitoring. Moreover, we invest heavily in compliance tools. For example, in addition to robust KYC and anti-money laundering programs, we employ an industry leading third-party trade surveillance software platform that helps us monitor and detect problematic trading activities on our platform, as further discussed below. We have also invested in a range of technologies that are designed to help identify and prevent harmful activity on our platform, including fraud or account takeovers.
As we maintain, grow, and expand our product and services offerings we also must scale and strengthen our internal controls and processes, and monitor our third-party partners’ and vendors’ ability to similarly scale and strengthen in order for us to remain an industry leader and a trusted platform. Additionally, we have procedures to process redemptions and withdrawals expeditiously, subject to the terms of applicable user agreements. For additional information, see Risk Factors—Our failure to securely store and manage our and our customers’ fiat currencies and crypto assets could adversely impact our business, operating results, and financial condition and Risk Factors—Depositing and withdrawing crypto assets into and from our platforms involve risks, which could result in loss of customer assets, customer disputes and other liabilities, which could adversely impact our business, operating results, and financial condition included in Part I, Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Competition
The crypto industry is highly innovative, rapidly evolving, and characterized by healthy competition, experimentation, changing customer needs, frequent introductions of new products and services, and is subject to uncertain and evolving industry and regulatory requirements. We face significant competition from a variety of companies around the world – ranging from crypto-native companies, including decentralized exchanges, to large traditional financial services incumbents and financial technology providers.
Our main competition falls into the following categories:
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traditional financial technology and brokerage firms that have entered the crypto asset market in recent years and offer overlapping features targeted at our customers;
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companies focused on the crypto asset market, some of whom adhere to local regulations and directly compete with our platform, and others who choose to operate outside of local rules and regulations or in jurisdictions with less stringent local rules and regulations and are potentially able to more quickly adapt to trends, support a greater number of crypto assets, and develop new crypto-based products and services due to a different standard of regulatory scrutiny;
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crypto-focused companies and traditional financial incumbents that offer point or siloed solutions specifically targeted at institutional customers;
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decentralized and non-custodial platforms; and
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stablecoins, other than USDC, and fiat currencies globally.
The competitive landscape varies significantly by geography, and many offerings are global in nature. The traditional financial services and financial technology companies we compete against are largely U.S. and European based and operate under the same evolving regulatory landscape that we do. However, we also face competition from companies, in particular those located outside the United States, who are subject to significantly less stringent regulatory and compliance requirements in their local jurisdictions. Their business models rely on being unregulated or only regulated in a small number of lower compliance jurisdictions, while also offering their products in highly regulated jurisdictions, including the United States, without necessarily complying with the relevant regulatory requirements in such jurisdictions. As regulations and compliance requirements in the United States become clearer, we may face increased competition from U.S.-based companies.
Our ability to quickly and continuously innovate to support additional blockchains, provide products and services to our customers that are native to the cryptoeconomy, such as staking and governance, and launch additional products and services further separates us from our competition. See the section titled “Risk Factors” in Part I, Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for a more comprehensive description of risks related to competition.
Human Capital
Powering the cryptoeconomy is no small task, and requires hiring, developing, and retaining the most talented individuals who are deeply passionate about our mission to increase economic freedom and who are excited to build new products and services.
We work incredibly hard in pursuit of ambitious goals. We signal who will thrive at Coinbase by being transparent about our culture on our website. Our culture has and will continue to evolve but, at our core, we prioritize the following tenets:
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Clear communication
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Efficient execution
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Act like an owner
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Top talent
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Championship team
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Continuous learning
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Customer focus
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Repeatable innovation
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Positive energy
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Mission first
We are a remote-first company. We believe that allowing our employees to work in the location that best suits them provides us access to a large talent pool and a sustained advantage in hiring and retaining employees in the United States and worldwide.
We offer competitive, transparent compensation and unique learning. We conduct an annual market review to ensure our compensation continues to be consistent with our competitive compensation philosophy. We have single, transparent pay targets for the vast majority of our roles – eliminating most compensation negotiations – and provide one-year equity grants for the vast majority of employees. We have also made meaningful investments in learning and development, including offering an annual learning stipend and in-house crypto learning curriculum.
We continuously improve our people programs and practices. We regularly monitor engagement through semi-annual pulse surveys to continuously optimize our culture, employee engagement, risk management, and productivity. We invest in these surveys and associated action planning at the executive level, as we believe our people and culture are key drivers of business success.
As of December 31, 2024, we had 3,772 employees.
Government Regulation
We operate globally in a complex and rapidly evolving regulatory environment and are subject to a wide range of laws and regulations enacted by U.S. federal, state, and local and foreign governments and regulatory authorities. The breadth of laws, rules, and regulations we are subject to include financial services and banking, consumer protection, money transmission, stored value and prepaid access, electronic payments, payment services, securities, commodities, derivatives, and unclaimed property, as well as bespoke digital asset and cryptocurrency laws that have been promulgated in some jurisdictions. These laws, rules, and regulations evolve frequently and may be modified, interpreted, and applied in an inconsistent manner from one jurisdiction to another, and may conflict with one another. Moreover, the complexity and evolving nature of our business and the significant uncertainty surrounding the regulation of the cryptoeconomy, require us to exercise our judgment as to whether certain laws, rules, and regulations apply to us, and it is possible that regulators may disagree with our conclusions. We are not supervised by any federal banking agency, such as the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or the Federal Reserve Board. In addition, our trading platform is not an SEC-regulated national securities exchange or alternative trading system.
Globally, we are subject to strict legal and regulatory requirements relating to the detection and prevention of terrorist financing, money laundering, fraud, tax evasion, and other illicit activity, the regulation of competition, economic, and trade sanctions, privacy, cybersecurity, information security, and data protection. These descriptions are not exhaustive, and these laws, regulations, and rules (and the interpretations thereof) frequently change and are increasing in number.
The laws and regulations to which we are subject, including those pertaining to digital assets and crypto assets, are rapidly evolving and increasing in scope. Therefore, we monitor these areas closely and invest significant resources in our legal, compliance, product, and engineering teams to ensure our business practices evolve to help us comply with the current laws, regulations, and legal standards to which we are subject, as well as to plan and prepare for changes in interpretations thereof, as well as additional laws, regulations, and legal standards that are introduced in the future.
Anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing
We are subject to various anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing laws, including the Bank Secrecy Act (the “BSA”) in the United States, and similar laws and regulations abroad. In the United States, as a money services business registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”), we are required under the BSA to among other things, develop, implement, and maintain a risk-based anti-money laundering program, provide an anti-money laundering-related training program, report suspicious activities and transactions to FinCEN, comply with certain reporting and recordkeeping
requirements, and collect and maintain information about our customers. In addition, the BSA requires us to comply with certain customer due diligence requirements as part of our anti-money laundering obligations, including developing risk-based policies, procedures, and internal controls reasonably designed to verify a customer’s identity. Many states and other countries impose similar and, in some cases, more stringent requirements related to anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing. Our compliance program is designed to prevent and detect instances of money laundering, terrorist financing, and other illicit activity on our platform. It is also designed to prohibit the use of Coinbase in sanctioned jurisdictions, or by sanctioned persons or entities, as determined by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”), and equivalent foreign authorities. It includes policies, procedures, reporting protocols, and internal controls, and is designed to address legal and regulatory requirements as well as to assist us in managing risks associated with money laundering and terrorist financing. As part of our compliance program, we limit the use of our products and services to jurisdictions where we are legally able to offer our products and services, and customers can only use our products and services in the specific jurisdictions we have approved. We enforce such geographic restrictions though various onboarding and login controls to limit a customer from accessing products or services outside of their jurisdiction-based permissions. Additionally, we have a robust KYC program, which is a central part of our anti-money laundering program. Our KYC program is governed by our Global KYC Policy that covers customer onboarding, and includes customer due diligence; calculation and assessment of customer risk rating; application of enhanced due diligence on high risk customers; and screening customers against global sanctions lists. Following the customer onboarding process, we perform ongoing monitoring of customers and transaction activity to ensure that potentially suspicious activity is appropriately detected, and when appropriate, reported. Anti-money laundering regulations are constantly evolving and vary from jurisdiction-to-jurisdiction. We continuously monitor our compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing regulations and industry standards and implement policies, procedures, and controls in light of the most current legal requirements.
For a description of the risks we may face from (i) unauthorized or impermissible customer access to our products and services outside of jurisdictions where we have determined to make such products and services available or (ii) an assertion of jurisdiction over our operations or the crypto assets we offer by U.S. and foreign regulators and other government entities, see the following risk factors in the section titled “Risk Factors” in Part I, Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K: (i) “We are subject to an extensive, highly-evolving and uncertain regulatory landscape and any adverse changes to, or our failure to comply with, any laws and regulations could adversely affect our brand, reputation, business, operating results, and financial condition”; (ii) “As we continue to expand and localize our international activities, our obligations to comply with the laws, rules, regulations, and policies of a variety of jurisdictions will increase and we may be subject to inquiries, investigations, and enforcement actions by U.S. and non-U.S. regulators and governmental authorities, including those related to sanctions, export control, and anti-money laundering”; and (iii) “A particular crypto asset, product or service’s status as a “security” in any relevant jurisdiction is subject to a high degree of uncertainty and if we are unable to properly characterize a crypto asset or product offering, we may be subject to regulatory scrutiny, inquiries, investigations, fines, and other penalties, which may adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.”
Money transmission, stored value, and virtual currency business activity
In the United States, we have obtained licenses to operate as a money transmitter or the equivalent in the states where such licenses or equivalent are required to conduct our business, as well as in the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. In addition, we have obtained a BitLicense from NYDFS and a Virtual Currency Business License from Louisiana. As a licensed money transmitter and an entity subject to the BitLicense regulatory regime, we are subject to, among other things, the BSA, restrictions, and requirements with respect to the investment of customer funds and use and safeguarding of customer funds and crypto assets, and bonding, minimum capital and net worth requirements, prudential compliance obligations associated with customer notice and disclosure, reporting and recordkeeping requirements applicable to the company, as well as requirements relating to the screening of control
persons and inspection and examination by state regulatory agencies. These state licensing laws also cover matters such as regulatory approval of controlling stockholders, directors, and senior management of the licensed entity.
Outside the United States, we have obtained licenses to provide crypto-asset custody and trading from the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). In Singapore, we hold a major payment institution license issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. In Australia, we are registered as a digital currency exchange provider with the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre. We are also registered as a Money Services Business with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, and we have registered as a Restricted Dealer by the Canadian Securities Administrators, with the Ontario Securities Commission as its Principal Regulator. In Bermuda, we have obtained a ‘Class ‘F’ (Full) Digital Asset Business License from the BMA enabling us to service consumer trading in numerous approved jurisdictions. In addition, we have obtained Virtual Asset Service Provider registrations in Argentina, Ireland, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom through which we offer crypto custody and trading services in these countries. Under these licenses and registrations, we are subject to a broad range of rules and regulations including in respect of anti-money laundering, safeguarding of customer assets and funds, regulatory capital requirements, fit and proper management, operational controls, corporate governance, customer disclosures, reporting, and record keeping.
Electronic money and payment institution
We serve our customers through Electronic Money Institutions authorized by the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority and the Central Bank of Ireland. We comply with rules and regulations applicable to the European e-money industry, including those related to funds safeguarding, corporate governance, anti-money laundering, disclosure, reporting, and inspection. We are, or may be, subject to banking-related regulations in other countries now or in the future related to our role in the financial industry.
New York State trust company
Our subsidiary, CCTC, operates as a New York State-chartered limited purpose trust company, which is subject to regulation, examination, and supervision by the NYDFS. NYDFS regulations impose various compliance requirements including, without limitation, operational limitations related to the nature of crypto assets we can hold under custody, capital requirements, BSA and anti-money laundering program requirements, affiliate transaction limitations, and notice and reporting requirements.
Economic and trade sanctions
We are required to comply with economic and trade sanctions administered by the United States, the European Union (“E.U.”), relevant E.U. member states, and other jurisdictions in which we operate. Economic and trade sanctions programs administered by OFAC and by certain foreign jurisdictions prohibit or restrict transactions to or from (or dealings with or involving) certain countries, regions, governments, and in certain circumstances, specified individuals and entities such as narcotics traffickers, terrorists, and terrorist organizations, as well as certain digital currency addresses.
Securities
In recent years, the SEC and U.S. state securities regulators have stated that certain digital assets or digital asset products may be classified as securities under U.S. federal and state securities laws, and in the case of the SEC, has made public statements on this topic – however, these statements are not binding or definitive guidance. A number of enforcement actions and regulatory proceedings have since been initiated against digital assets and digital asset products, as well as against trading platforms that support digital assets. The SEC has characterized a number of crypto assets, products, and services as securities in these regulatory proceedings and enforcement actions, including an enforcement action brought against us. The SEC has stated more recently that a crypto asset itself is not a security, but there is uncertainty and inconsistency in the courts that have grappled with the issue of whether or how certain
crypto asset transactions could be deemed securities. Several foreign governments have also issued similar warnings cautioning that digital assets may be deemed to be securities or other similarly regulated financial instruments under the laws of their jurisdictions.
We have established policies and practices to evaluate each crypto asset we consider for listing, delisting, or for custody. We also evaluate all other products and services prior to launch under U.S. federal and applicable international securities laws.
Commodities and derivatives
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) has stated, and CFTC enforcement actions have confirmed, that at least some crypto assets, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, fall within the definition of a “commodity” under the U.S. Commodities Exchange Act of 1936 (the “CEA”). Under the CEA, the CFTC has broad enforcement authority to police market manipulation and fraud in spot commodity markets, including the spot crypto markets. We are subject to such authority with respect to improper trading on our platform. In addition, CFTC regulations and CFTC oversight and enforcement authority apply with respect to futures, swaps, other derivative products, and certain retail leveraged commodity transactions involving crypto assets, including the markets on which these products trade. Separately, security-based swaps are subject to SEC regulation and oversight. In general, we seek to ensure that crypto asset transactions on our crypto asset trading platform do not constitute futures, swaps, security-based swaps, other derivative products, or retail leveraged commodity transactions. In August 2023, our subsidiary, Coinbase Financial Markets, Inc. secured regulatory approval from the National Futures Association to operate as a futures commission merchant (“FCM”), in September 2023, Coinbase International Exchange secured regulatory approval from the BMA to enable perpetual futures for eligible non-U.S. customers, and in February 2022, we acquired LMX Labs, LLC, a designated contract market (“DCM”) regulated by the CFTC which now operates as the Coinbase Derivatives Exchange, in connection with our acquisition of FairXchange, Inc. FCMs and DCMs are subject to the rules of the National Futures Association as well as numerous regulatory requirements, including strict capital requirements.
Prohibitions on bribery and anti-corruption
We are subject to regulations imposed by the FCPA in the United States and similar laws in other countries, such as the Bribery Act 2010 in the United Kingdom (the “Bribery Act”), which generally prohibit companies and those acting on their behalf from making improper payments to foreign government officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business. Some of these laws, such as the Bribery Act, also prohibit improper payments between private entities and persons.
Privacy and protection of user data
We are subject to a number of laws, rules, directives, and regulations relating to the collection, use, retention, security, processing, and transfer of personally identifiable information about our customers and employees in the countries where we operate. Our business relies on the processing of personal data in many jurisdictions and the movement of data across national borders. As a result, much of the personal data that we process, which may include certain financial information associated with individuals, is regulated by multiple privacy and data protection laws and, in some cases, the privacy and data protection laws of multiple jurisdictions. In many cases, these laws apply not only to third-party transactions, but also to transfers of information between or among us, our subsidiaries, and other parties with which we have commercial relationships.
Consumer protection
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”), and other U.S. federal, state, and local and foreign regulatory agencies regulate financial products, including money transfer services related to remittance or peer-to-peer transfers. These agencies, as well as certain other governmental bodies, including state attorneys general, have broad consumer protection
mandates and discretion in enforcing consumer protection laws, including matters related to unfair or deceptive, and, in the case of the CFPB, abusive acts or practices (“UDAAPs”), and they promulgate, interpret, and enforce rules and regulations that affect our business. The CFPB has enforcement authority to prevent an entity that offers or provides consumer financial services or products in the United States from committing or engaging in UDAAPs or violating other federal consumer financial laws, including the ability to engage in joint investigations with other agencies, issue subpoenas and civil investigative demands, conduct hearings and adjudication proceedings, commence a civil action, grant relief (e.g., limit activities or functions; rescission of contracts), and refer matters for criminal proceedings. Market disruptions have led to certain attempts by consumer protection focused agencies, including the CFPB, to directly regulate the crypto industry. New laws or regulations, or changes in enforcement of existing laws or regulations could require us to change certain business practices related to consumer disclosures, marketing and operational features related to payments and remittance regulations and other laws that may impact our business.
Escheatment and unclaimed property regulations
We are subject to unclaimed property laws in the United States and in certain other jurisdictions where we operate. These laws may require us to turn over to certain government authorities the property of others held by us that has been unclaimed for a specified period of time, including airdropped tokens and forked crypto assets. These laws may also require us to liquidate that property prior to turning it over. We hold property subject to unclaimed property laws; however, there is significant regulatory uncertainty with how certain states and foreign jurisdictions treat crypto assets under unclaimed property rules.
Lending law
We originate secured commercial loans in certain states in the United States. As a result, our lending activities are subject to various state lending laws and licensure requirements with respect to lending activities within such state. These state lending laws may be enforced by state attorneys general, state financial regulators, and private litigants, among others. Given our novel business model and uncertainty regarding application of some of these laws and regulations, we may become subject to regulatory scrutiny or legal challenge with respect to our compliance with these requirements.
Interchange fees
Interchange fees associated with four-party payments systems are being reviewed or challenged in various jurisdictions. For example, in the E.U., the Multilateral Interchange Fee Regulation caps interchange fees for credit and debit card payments and provides for business rules to be complied with by any company dealing with card transactions, including us. As a result, the fees that we collect in certain jurisdictions may become the subject of regulatory challenge.
Legal requirements for prepaid cards
Prepaid card programs are subject to various federal and state laws and regulations, including consumer financial protection regulations such as the CFPB's Regulation E, which imposes requirements on issuers of prepaid cards. The laws and regulations impose compliance obligations and costs on our business, and failure to comply could result in litigation, enforcement actions, and penalties.
Card association and payment network rules
In addition to the federal and state laws and regulations governing prepaid cards, we, as well as the bank that issues our Coinbase Card, are subject to and required to comply with card association and payment network rules and guidelines which apply to prepaid cards. The card association and payment network rules govern a variety of areas, including how consumers and merchants may use their cards and data security, and may be changed periodically. Noncompliance with these rules could result in fines or penalties levied by the card association or payment network for certain acts or omissions, or the termination of our ability to offer prepaid cards.
Association and network rules
The bylaws and agreements between clearing house participants and bankcard companies impose specific responsibilities and liabilities for issuers of debit cards. We, as well as the bank that issues our Coinbase Card, are required to comply with the appropriate National Automated Clearing House Association (“NACHA”), bylaws, operating rules, and agreements, as well as card network rules and guidelines. Additional new products and services that we offer may also impose additional obligations on us to comply with NACHA and card network obligations related to preventing fraud, money laundering, and IT security breaches.
Intellectual Property
The protection of our technology and intellectual property is an important aspect of our business. We rely upon a variety of protections, including a combination of patents, trademarks, trade secrets, copyrights, confidentiality procedures, and contractual commitments. We co-founded the Crypto Open Patent Alliance, and pledged to only use our crypto technology patents defensively. We may also in the future agree to license our patents to third parties as part of various patent pools and open patent projects.
Corporate Information
We were initially incorporated in May 2012 as Coinbase, Inc., a Delaware corporation. In January 2014, Coinbase Global, Inc. was incorporated as a Delaware corporation to act as the holding company of Coinbase, Inc. and our other subsidiaries. In April 2014, we completed a corporate reorganization whereby Coinbase, Inc. became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Coinbase Global, Inc. Coinbase Global, Inc.’s principal assets are its interests in the equity of Coinbase, Inc. In addition to Coinbase, Inc., Coinbase Global, Inc. is the parent company of a number of other operating subsidiaries. We are a remote-first company, meaning the majority of our employees work remotely. Due to this, we do not maintain a headquarters.
Coinbase, the Coinbase logo, and other registered or common law trade names, trademarks, or service marks of Coinbase included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are the property of Coinbase. Other trademarks, service marks, or trade names included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are the property of their respective owners.
Available Information
We file our annual, periodic and current reports, and other required information, electronically with the SEC and this information is available at www.sec.gov. We also make available on our website at www.coinbase.com, free of charge, copies of these reports and other information as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC.
We use our Investor Relations website (investor.coinbase.com), our blog (blog.coinbase.com), press releases, public conference calls and webcasts, our X feed (@coinbase), Brian Armstrong’s X feed (@brian_armstrong), our LinkedIn page, and our YouTube channel as means of disclosing material non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. The information disclosed by the foregoing channels could be deemed to be material information. As such, we encourage investors, the media, and others to follow the channels listed above and to review the information disclosed through such channels. The contents of the websites referred to above are not intended to be incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in any other report or document we file with the SEC, and any references to websites are intended to be inactive textual references only.
Item 1A. RISK FACTORS
Investing in our Class A common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this Annual Report
on Form 10-K, including the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and the Consolidated Financial Statements and related notes. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware of or that we deem immaterial may also become important factors that adversely affect our business. If any of the following risks occur, our business, operating results, financial condition, and future prospects could be materially and adversely affected. Many risks affect more than one category, and the risks are not in order of significance or probability of occurrence because they have been grouped by categories. The market price of our Class A common stock could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment due to any of these risks.
The Most Material Risks Related to Our Business and Financial Position
Our operating results have and will significantly fluctuate, including due to the highly volatile nature of crypto.
Due to the highly volatile nature of the cryptoeconomy and the prices of crypto assets, our operating results have, and will continue to, fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter in accordance with market sentiments and movements in the broader cryptoeconomy. Our operating results will continue to fluctuate significantly as a result of a variety of factors, many of which are unpredictable and in certain instances are outside of our control, including:
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crypto asset trading activity, including trading volume and the prevailing trading prices for crypto assets, which can be highly volatile;
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our ability to attract, maintain, grow, and engage our customer and developer base;
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changes in the legislative or regulatory environment, or actions by U.S. or foreign governments or regulators, including fines, orders, or consent decrees;
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regulatory changes or scrutiny that impact our ability to offer certain products or services;
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our ability to continue to diversify and grow our subscription and services revenue;
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our mix of revenue between transaction and subscription and services;
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pricing for or temporary suspensions of our products and services;
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adding crypto assets to, or removing from, our platform;
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our ability to establish and maintain partnerships, collaborations, joint ventures, or strategic alliances with third parties;
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market conditions of, and overall sentiment towards, the cryptoeconomy;
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macroeconomic conditions, including interest rates, inflation, and instability in the global banking system;
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adverse legal proceedings or regulatory enforcement actions, judgments, settlements, or other legal proceedings, and enforcement-related costs;
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the development and introduction of existing and new products and services by us or our competitors;
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the amount and timing of our operating expenses related to the maintenance and expansion of our business and operations, including investments we make in the development of products and services, as well as technology offered to our developers, international expansion, and sales and marketing;
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system failures, outages or interruptions, including with respect to our platform and third-party crypto networks;
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our lack of control over decentralized or third-party blockchains and networks that may experience downtime, cyberattacks, critical failures, errors, bugs, corrupted files, data losses, or other similar software failures, outages, breaches and losses;
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breaches of security or privacy;
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inaccessibility of our platform due to our or third-party actions;
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our ability to attract and retain talent; and
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our ability to compete with our competitors.
As a result of these factors, it is difficult for us to forecast growth trends accurately and our business and future prospects are difficult to evaluate, particularly in the short term. In particular, our subscription and services revenue has grown over time, with stablecoin revenue received in connection with USDC becoming a more meaningful revenue contributor. Therefore, our operating results could fluctuate significantly as a result of changes in the demand for our subscription and service offerings, in the demand for USDC, in the balance of USDC on our platform, in interest rates, and to our ongoing relationships with third parties, such as Circle.
In view of the rapidly evolving nature of our business and the cryptoeconomy, period-to-period comparisons of our operating results may not be meaningful, and you should not rely upon them as an indication of future performance. Quarterly and annual expenses reflected in our financial statements may be significantly different from historical or projected rates. Our operating results in one or more future quarters may fall below the expectations of securities analysts and investors. As a result, the trading price of our Class A common stock may increase or decrease significantly.
Our total revenue is substantially dependent on the prices of crypto assets and volume of transactions conducted on our platform. If such price or volume declines, our business, operating results, and financial condition would be adversely affected and the price of our Class A common stock could decline.
We generate a large portion of our total revenue from transaction fees on our platform in connection with the purchase, sale, and trading of crypto assets by our customers. Transaction revenue is based on transaction fees that are either a flat fee or a percentage of the value of each transaction. For our consumer trading product, we also charge a spread to ensure that we are able to settle purchases and sales at the prices we quote to customers. We also generate a large portion of total revenue from our subscription and services, and such revenue has grown over time, primarily due to growth in stablecoin revenue in connection with USDC. Declines in the volume of crypto asset transactions, the price of crypto assets, or market liquidity for crypto assets generally may result in lower total revenue to us.
The price of crypto assets and associated demand for buying, selling, and trading crypto assets have historically been subject to significant volatility. If the price and transaction volume of crypto assets decline in the future, our ability to generate revenue may suffer and customer demand for our products and services may decline, which could adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition and cause the price of our Class A common stock to decline. The price and transaction volume of any crypto asset is subject to significant uncertainty and volatility, depending on a number of factors, including:
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market conditions of, and overall sentiment towards, crypto assets and the cryptoeconomy, including, but not limited to, as a result of actions taken by or developments of other companies in the cryptoeconomy;
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changes in liquidity, market-making volume, and trading activities;
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trading activities on other crypto platforms worldwide, many of which may be unregulated, and may include manipulative activities;
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investment and trading activities of highly active consumer and institutional users, speculators, miners, and investors;
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the speed and rate at which crypto is able to gain adoption as a medium of exchange, utility, store of value, consumptive asset, security instrument, or other financial assets worldwide, if at all;
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decreased user and investor confidence in crypto assets and crypto platforms;
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negative publicity and events relating to the cryptoeconomy;
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unpredictable social media coverage or “trending” of, or other rumors and market speculation regarding, crypto assets;
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th
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Item 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
Not applicable
Item 1C. CYBERSECURITY
Cybersecurity Risk Management and Strategy
We have developed and implemented cybersecurity risk management processes intended to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of our critical systems and information. While everyone at our company plays a part in managing cybersecurity risks, primary cybersecurity oversight responsibility is shared by our board of directors, our audit and compliance committee (“Audit Committee”), and senior management. Our cybersecurity risk management program is integrated into our overall enterprise risk management program.
Our cybersecurity risk management program includes:
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physical, technological, and administrative controls intended to support our cybersecurity and data governance framework, including protections designed to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of our key information systems and customer, employee, partner, and other third-party information stored on those systems, such as access controls, encryption, data handling requirements, and other cybersecurity safeguards, and internal policies that govern our cybersecurity risk management and data protection practices;
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a defined procedure for timely incident detection, containment, response, and remediation, including a written security incident response plan that includes procedures for responding to cybersecurity incidents;
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cybersecurity risk assessment processes designed to help identify material cybersecurity risks to our critical systems, information, products, services, and broader enterprise IT environment;
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a security team responsible for managing our cybersecurity risk assessment processes and security controls;
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the use of external consultants or other third-party experts and service providers, where considered appropriate, to assess, test, or otherwise assist with aspects of our cybersecurity controls;
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annual cybersecurity and privacy training of employees, including incident response personnel and senior management, and specialized training for certain teams depending on their role and/or access to certain types of information, such as consumer information; and
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a third-party risk management process that includes internal vetting of certain third-party vendors and service providers with whom we may share data.
Over the past fiscal year, we have not identified risks from known cybersecurity threats, including as a result of any prior cybersecurity incidents we have experienced from time to time, that have materially affected or are reasonably likely to materially affect us, including our operations, business strategy, operating results, or financial condition. We will continue to monitor and assess our cybersecurity risk management program as well as invest in and seek to improve such systems and processes as appropriate. If we were to experience a material cybersecurity incident in the future, such incident may have a material effect, including on our operations, business strategy, operating results, or financial condition. For more information regarding cybersecurity risks that we face and potential impacts on our business related thereto, see the section titled “Risk Factors” in Part I, Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Cybersecurity Governance
With oversight from our board of directors, the Audit Committee is primarily responsible for assisting our board of directors in fulfilling its ultimate oversight responsibilities relating to risk assessment and management, including relating to cybersecurity and other information technology risks. The Audit Committee oversees management’s implementation of our cybersecurity risk management program, including processes and policies for determining risk tolerance, and reviews management’s strategies for adequately mitigating and managing identified risks, including risks relating to cybersecurity threats.
The Audit Committee has established the Enterprise Risk Management Working Group (“ERMWG”), comprising members of our senior management team and other senior leaders, to provide executive oversight of our enterprise risk management program. Our Chief Security Officer (“CSO”) is a member of the ERMWG, and together with our Chief Information Security Officer (“CISO”) leads an ERMWG sub-working group related to cybersecurity, which meets periodically to review and discuss emerging and key risks relating to cybersecurity at the company, and to provide regular updates to the ERMWG.
The Audit Committee receives updates from the ERMWG and from members of management, including our CSO and CISO, on our cybersecurity risks at its quarterly meetings, and reviews metrics about cyber threat response preparedness, program maturity milestones, risk mitigation status, and the current and emerging threat landscape. In addition, management updates the Audit Committee, as necessary, regarding any material cybersecurity threats or incidents, as well as any incidents with lesser impact potential.
The Audit Committee reports to our board of directors regarding its activities, including those related to key cybersecurity risks, mitigation strategies, and ongoing developments, on a quarterly basis or more frequently as needed. The board of directors also receives updates from our CSO and CISO on our cyber risk management program and other matters relating to our data privacy and cybersecurity approach, including risk mitigations to bolster and enhance our data protection and data governance framework. Members of our board of directors receive presentations that include cybersecurity topics and the management of key cybersecurity risks from our CSO and CISO as part of the continuing education of our board of directors on topics that impact public companies. Finally, our board of directors annually reviews and is required to approve our Global Information Security Program Policy and any changes recommended by our CSO.
Our management team, including our CSO and CISO, is responsible for assessing and managing our material risks from cybersecurity threats and for our overall cybersecurity risk management program on a day-to-day basis, and supervises both our internal cybersecurity personnel and the relationship with our retained external cybersecurity consultants. Our CSO’s and CISO’s experience includes years of working in the cybersecurity field in various industries, including the financial services industry.
Our management team supervises efforts to prevent, detect, mitigate, and remediate cybersecurity risks and incidents through various means, including through periodic ERMWG sub-working group meetings; briefings from internal security personnel; threat intelligence and other information obtained from governmental, public or private sources, including external consultants engaged by us; and alerts and reports produced by security tools deployed in the IT environment.
Item 2. PROPERTIES
We are a remote-first company, meaning that for the vast majority of roles, our employees have the option to work remotely. Substantially all of our executive team meetings are held virtually, with meetings occasionally held in-person at locations that are either not in our offices or in various of our offices distributed around the world. We hold all of our stockholder meetings virtually. As a result of this strategy, we do not maintain a headquarters, but do currently lease physical offices in select major cities in the United States and other countries around the world for purposes of collaboration and team building.
We believe that our facilities are adequate to meet our needs for the immediate future, and that, should we need additional physical office space, suitable additional space will be available in the future.
Item 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
For a description of material legal proceedings in which we are involved, see Note 21. Commitments and Contingencies of the Notes to our Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, which is incorporated herein by reference.
We are not presently a party to any other legal or regulatory proceedings that in the opinion of our management, if determined adversely to us, would individually or taken together have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, financial condition, or cash flows. However, we are subject to regulatory oversight by numerous state, federal, and foreign regulators and we are and we may become subject to various legal proceedings, inquiries, investigations, and demand letters that arise in the course of our business. For example, we have received investigative subpoenas and other inquiries from various state agencies and attorneys general for documents and information pertaining to our business practices and policies, customer complaints, asset launches, certain ongoing litigation, and certain transfers of crypto assets. In addition, we have received investigative subpoenas from the SEC and similar subpoenas and demand letters from various regulators for documents and information, including about certain customer programs, operations, and existing and intended future products, including our processes for listing assets, the classification of certain listed assets, our staking programs, and our stablecoin and yield-generating products. We intend to cooperate fully with such investigations. These examples are not exhaustive.
Item 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES
Not applicable
PART II. OTHER INFORMATION
Item 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES
Market Information for Common Stock
Our Class A common stock began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “COIN” on April 14, 2021. Prior to that date, there was no public trading market for our Class A common stock.
Our Class B common stock is not listed or traded on any stock exchange.
Holders of Record
As of February 6, 2025, there were 263 registered holders of record of our Class A common stock and 8 registered holders of record of our Class B common stock. Since many of our shares of Class A common stock are held by brokers and other institutions on behalf of stockholders, we are unable to estimate the total number of stockholders represented by these record holders.
Dividend Policy
We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our capital stock. We are not obligated to pay any dividends on our Class A common stock or Class B common stock, and we currently do not anticipate paying any dividends on our capital stock in the foreseeable future. Any future determination to declare dividends will be made at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend on our financial condition, operating results, capital requirements, general business conditions, and other factors that our board of directors may deem relevant.
Stock Performance Graph
The following performance graph shall not be deemed “soliciting material” or to be “filed” with the SEC for purposes of Section 18 of the Exchange Act, or otherwise subject to the liabilities under that Section, and shall not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any of our filings under the Exchange Act or Securities Act.
The graph below compares the cumulative total return to stockholders of our Class A common stock between April 14, 2021 (the date our Class A common stock commenced trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market) and December 31, 2024 relative to the Nasdaq Composite Index, the Nasdaq U.S. Benchmark Financial Services Index, the S&P North American Technology Index, and the price of Bitcoin. The graph assumes the investment of $100 in our Class A common stock at the closing sale price of $328.28 per share on April 14, 2021, and in each index and assumes the reinvestment of dividends, if any.
The historical data shown below should not be considered an indication of potential future stock price performance. Historical Bitcoin prices are primarily based on data obtained from our platform. Where such data is not available (e.g. during a platform outage), such data may sometimes be sourced from other third-party exchanges or data providers.

Recent Sales of Unregistered Securities
None
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
We did not repurchase any shares of our Class A common stock during the three months ended December 31, 2024.
Item 6. [RESERVED]
Item 7. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our Consolidated Financial Statements and the accompanying notes thereto included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Th**e following discussion and analysis contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they never materialize or prove incorrect, could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to these differences include, but are not limited to, those identified below and those discussed in the section titled Risk Factors in Part I, Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K*. Unless otherwise expressly stated or the context otherwise requires, references to “we,” “our,” “us,” “the Company,” and “Coinbase” refer to Coinbase Global, Inc. and its c**onsolidated* subsidiaries. For all narrative provided in this Item 7, two numbers presented consecutively represent figures for the year ended December 31, 2024 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2023, respectively, unless otherwise noted. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations for the year ended December 31, 2023 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2022 can be found in Item 7 of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 15, 2024, which is incorporated by reference herein.
Executive Overview
This executive overview of Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations highlights selected information and does not contain all of the information that is important to readers of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
During 2024, we made progress against our goals of driving revenue growth, crypto utility, and regulatory clarity. We advanced the crypto economy by deepening institutional adoption, scaling international growth, and expanding real-world utility. Our investments in core products like derivatives and Coinbase One, as well as our focus on global expansion drove revenue growth, while innovations such as USDC rewards showcased the power of onchain finance.
For the year ended December 31, 2024, our net revenue was $6.3 billion, including $4.0 billion in transaction revenue and $2.3 billion in subscription and services revenue. For the year ended December 31, 2023, our net revenue was $2.9 billion, including $1.5 billion in transaction revenue and $1.4 billion in subscription and services revenue.
For the year ended December 31, 2024, our net income was $2.6 billion and Adjusted EBITDA was $3.3 billion. For the year ended December 31, 2023, our net income was $0.1 billion and Adjusted EBITDA was $1.0 billion.
For 2025, we believe that we are well-positioned to drive revenue growth across all macroeconomic environments, and we remain committed to advancing regulatory clarity. Despite multiple Federal Funds Rate decreases in late 2024, future interest rate decreases are not certain. If they continue, they may materially impact our subscription and services and other revenue. We plan to dynamically adjust our expense base in order to be responsive to market conditions and revenue opportunities, increasing or decreasing it as needed, especially with respect to certain variable expenses. In the first quarter of 2025, we expect technology and development and general and administrative expenses to grow modestly as compared to the fourth quarter of 2024, primarily due to headcount growth and variable infrastructure and customer support expenses. Additionally, we expect sales and marketing expenses to grow, as compared to the fourth quarter of 2024, primarily due to expected higher USDC rewards expense and variable non-brand marketing spend.
Key Business Metrics
In addition to the measures presented in our Consolidated Financial Statements, we use the key business metrics listed below to evaluate our business, measure our performance, identify trends affecting our business, and make strategic decisions:
| Year Ended December 31, | |||||||||||||||||
| 2024 | 2023 | % | |||||||||||||||
| MTUs(1) (in millions) | 8.4 | 7.4 | 14 | ||||||||||||||
| Assets on Platform(2) (in billions) | $ | 404 | $ | 191 | 112 | ||||||||||||
| Trading Volume (in billions) | $ | 1,162 | $ | 468 | 148 | ||||||||||||
| Net income (in millions) | $ | 2,579 | $ | 95 | nm | ||||||||||||
| Adjusted EBITDA(3) (in millions) | $ | 3,348 | $ | 978 | 242 |
nm - not meaningful
(1)Represents the annual average MTUs, calculated as the average of quarterly MTUs, which are derived from the average of each month’s MTUs in each respective quarter. Quarterly MTUs for the fourth quarter of 2024 and 2023, were 9.7 million and 7.0 million, respectively.
(2)Represents Assets on Platform at December 31.
(3)In the first quarter of 2024, we revised our definition of Adjusted EBITDA and recast the prior period for comparability. See the section titled “Non-GAAP Financial Measure” below for a reconciliation of net income to Adjusted EBITDA and an explanation for why we consider Adjusted EBITDA to be a helpful metric for investors.
Monthly Transacting Users
We define a Monthly Transacting User (“MTU”) as a consumer who actively or passively transacts in one or more products on our platform at least once during the rolling 28-day period ending on the date of measurement. MTUs engage in transactions that generate both transaction revenue and subscription and services revenue. Revenue-generating transactions include active transactions, such as buying or selling crypto assets or passive transactions such as earning staking rewards and USDC rewards. MTUs also engage in transactions that are non-revenue generating, such as consumers sending and receiving crypto assets between wallets and off-platform accounts on a non-expedited basis. MTUs may overstate the number of unique consumers due to differences in product architecture or user behavior.
MTUs increased for the year ended December 31, 2024 as compared to 2023, primarily due to a 1.3 million increase in trading users, influenced by overall crypto market sentiment and activity and higher average crypto asset prices. Additionally, we saw growth in users participating in our USDC rewards programs, offset in part by a decrease in staking only users as a result of updates we made to our staking service.
Assets on Platform
As a result of our decision to adopt SAB 122 as of December 31, 2024 on a retrospective basis, we will include an Assets on Platform (“AOP”) key business metric going forward to expand upon the details of the assets we are obligated to securely store.
We define AOP as the total United States (“U.S.”) dollar equivalent value of USDC and crypto assets held or managed on behalf of customers in digital wallets on our platform, including our custody services but excluding assets for which the customer holds full or partial keys, calculated based on the market price on the date of measurement. Prior to SAB 122 adoption, SAB 121 safeguarding amounts included assets for which customers held full or partial keys. As custome
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Item 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
Market risk is the risk to our financial statements associated with the effect of changes in market factors, including risks associated with interest rates, foreign currency, derivatives, equity investments, and crypto assets. These assets, liabilities, and equities are held for purposes other than trading.
Interest Rate Risk
Our exposure to changes in interest rates primarily relates to interest earned on our cash and cash equivalents and customer custodial funds and from our arrangement with Circle Internet Financial (“Circle”).
Our investment policy and strategy related to our cash and cash equivalents and customer custodial funds is to preserve capital and meet liquidity requirements without increasing risk. These funds consist of cash deposits and money market funds, and therefore the fair value of our cash and cash equivalents and customer custodial funds would not be significantly affected by either an increase or a decrease in interest rates. However, the amount of interest we earn on these balances, especially the cash equivalents, may be significantly impacted. The Federal Reserve has adjusted the Federal Funds Rate significantly in recent years in an effort to control inflation, raising it from a low of under 0.1% as of March 2022 to a peak of 5.33% from July 2023 to September 2024, followed by declines to arrive at 4.33% as of December 31, 2024. This activity reflects an increase of over 500 basis points, followed by a decrease of nearly 100 basis points, and as a result, we believe additional significant changes in interest rates are reasonably possible. The gross increase between December 31, 2022 and December 31, 2024, a period which we currently deem to be a reasonable proxy for near term future changes in interest rates, was approximately 200 basis points. A hypothetical 200 basis points increase or decrease in average interest rates applied to our average month end cash equivalents balances for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, would have resulted in an impact of $165.8 million and $122.9 million, respectively, on interest earned on these funds.
We also earn stablecoin revenue from an arrangement with Circle. Interest income is earned by Circle on USDC reserve balances held. Circle reported that, as of December 31, 2024, underlying reserves were held in cash within segregated accounts titled for the benefit of USDC holders and a government money market fund that held cash, short-duration U.S. Treasuries, and overnight U.S. Treasury repurchase agreements, and therefore the fair value of these balances would not be significantly affected by either an increase or a decrease in interest rates. However, the related amount of stablecoin revenue we earn may be significantly impacted. A hypothetical 200 basis points increase or decrease in average interest rates applied to daily USDC reserve balances held by Circle for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, would have resulted in an impact of $387.8 million and $294.2 million, respectively, on stablecoin revenue.
Foreign Currency Risk
Foreign currency transaction risk
Revenues, expenses, and financial results of our foreign subsidiaries are recorded in the functional currency of these subsidiaries. Our foreign currency exposure is primarily related to transactions denominated in Euros and British Pounds attributable to cash and cash equivalents, customer custodial funds and customer custodial fund liabilities, and intercompany transactions where the transaction currency is different from a subsidiary’s functional currency. Changes in foreign exchange rates, and in particular a weakening of foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar may negatively affect our results of operations as expressed in U.S. dollars. We have experienced and will continue to experience fluctuations in our results of operations and cash flows as a result of changes in foreign currency exchange rates, including from gains or losses on the settlement and the remeasurement of monetary assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currencies that are not the functional currency of the respective entity. From time to time, we may enter into derivatives or other financial instruments in an attempt to hedge our exposure to foreign currency exchange risk. No such instruments were outstanding as of December 31, 2024 and 2023 or during the year ended December 31, 2024.
See Note 16. Other (Income) Expense, Net of the Notes to our Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for losses on foreign exchange, net for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023. If an adverse 10% foreign currency exchange rate change was applied to the largest foreign currency exposure (e.g. Euro) or to all foreign currency exposures in aggregate, of monetary assets, liabilities, and commitments denominated in currencies other than its functional currency as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, it would not have a material impact on our financial results. Our international operations expose us to exchange rate fluctuations otherwise. Such fluctuations could have a material impact on our future results of operations and cash flows, the impact of which is difficult to predict as it depends on many factors that we cannot forecast with reliable accuracy, including the volume and nature of our transactions and the particular currencies in which these transactions are denominated.
Foreign currency translation risk
Fluctuations in functional currencies from our net investment in international subsidiaries expose us to foreign currency translation risk, where changes in foreign currency exchange rates may adversely affect our results of operations upon translation into U.S. dollars. See our Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive income (loss) in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for translation adjustments for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023, and 2022. As of December 31, 2024 and 2023, a 10% increase or decrease in foreign currency exchange rates used in translating the financial statements of subsidiaries with functional currencies other than our reporting currency would not have a material impact on our financial results.
Equity Investment Risk
We hold strategic investments in privately held companies in the form of equity securities without readily determinable fair values in which we do not have a controlling interest or significant influence. These investments are subject to a wide variety of market and price-related risks due to the lack of readily available market data, which requires us to make significant estimates and assumptions that could substantially impact the carrying value of the investments. We perform a qualitative assessment of our portfolio of strategic equity investments on a quarterly basis for indicators of impairment. Our analysis includes a review of indicators such as: operating results when available; business prospects of the investees; changes in the regulatory and macroeconomic environment; observable price changes in similar transactions; and general market conditions of the geographical area or industry in which our investees operate. If indicators of impairment exist and the estimated fair value of an investment is below the carrying amount, we will write down the investment to fair value.
As of December 31, 2024 and 2023, our strategic equity investments in privately held companies were $374.2 million and $343.0 million, respectively. Adjustments to the fair value of our investments are recorded in Other (income) expense, net in our Consolidated Statements of Operations. During the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, we recognized immaterial impairment expense related to our strategic investments in privately held companies. We anticipate volatility to our net income (loss) in future periods due to changes in the fair values associated with these investments and observable price changes in similar transactions that could impact our fair value assessments. Based on future market conditions, these changes could be material to our financial results. For more information, see Notes 2. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies*—*Investments and 13. Fair Value Measurements of the Notes to our Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Market Risk of Crypto Assets
We generate a large portion of our total revenue from transaction fees on our platform in connection with the purchase, sale, and trading of crypto assets by our customers. Transaction revenue is based on transaction fees that are either a flat fee or a percentage of the value of each transaction and may vary depending on payment type and the value of the transaction. We also generate a large portion of our total revenue from our subscription products and services, and such revenue has grown over time. Accordingly, crypto asset price risk could adversely affect our operating results. In particular, our future profitability may depend upon the market price of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, as well as other crypto assets. Crypto asset prices, along with our operating results, have fluctuated significantly from quarter to quarter. There is no assurance that crypto asset prices will reflect historical trends. A decline in the market price of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and other crypto assets has in the past had and could in the future have an adverse effect on our earnings and our future cash flows. This may also affect our liquidity and ability to meet ongoing obligations.
In addition to the exposures described above, we hold crypto assets for various reasons. As of December 31, 2024, we held the following crypto assets: $1.6 billion held for investment; $261.1 million that were borrowed; $82.8 million held for operations; and $767.5 million held as collateral. In addition, as of December 31, 2024, customers had pledged $178.6 million of crypto assets that are not recognized as collateral. See Note 2. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies of the Notes to our Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for further discussion of these different categories of assets.
Beginning on January 1, 2024, as a result of our adoption of ASU 2023-08, we changed how we value and present crypto assets held in our Consolidated Balance Sheets and thus there are no comparable figures reported in our Consolidated Balance Sheets as of December 31, 2023. However, prior to adoption, we classified our crypto assets held according to these same categories and have utilized these balances in preparing the following disclosures.
Crypto assets held for investment are primarily held long term, and historically, we have not attempted to reduce our market risk exposure associated with these crypto assets. Crypto asset prices have been volatile, as demonstrated by the one year historical volatility of Bitcoin and Ethereum of approximately 50% implied from the annualized standard deviation of daily price returns observed in the past 24 months. A hypothetical 50% increase or decrease in crypto assets prices as of December 31, 2024 and 2023 would result in a $776.5 million and $514.0 million impact, respectively, to the value of our Crypto assets held for investment and would have, under ASU 2023-08, been recorded as a gain or loss in our Consolidated Statements of Operations.
Our market risk exposure on all remaining categories of crypto assets that we hold is limited, either due to their short-term nature or to naturally offsetting positions. Crypto assets held for operations are received as a form of payment and are converted to cash or used to fulfill expenses, primarily blockchain rewards, nearly immediately, and therefore are subject to limited market risk. A hypothetical 10% increase or decrease in crypto asset prices applied to the value of our Crypto assets held for operations as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, and applied to the simple average of our gross inflows and outflows of
these assets for their weighted average period outstanding during 2024, would not have a material impact on our Consolidated Financial Statements. Our market risk exposure on Crypto assets borrowed and Crypto assets held as collateral is limited through naturally offsetting positions of the crypto asset borrowings and obligation to return crypto asset collateral which contain embedded derivatives that are remeasured each reporting period. See —Borrowings and related collateral derivative positions below. Similarly, we do not have market risk exposure on crypto assets received but not recognized as collateral as we are obligated to return that collateral.
Market Risk of Derivatives
We have exposure to derivatives measured and recorded at fair value. Market risk on derivatives is the exposure created by potential fluctuations in market prices and other factors and is a function of the type of derivative product, the volume of transactions, the tenor and terms of the agreement, and the underlying volatility.
Strategic derivative positions
In certain market conditions, we may opportunistically employ derivative strategies within a disciplined risk management framework to attempt to hedge our exposure to foreign currency or crypto assets held for investment. We did not have any such positions as of December 31, 2024 or 2023.
Our remaining derivative positions, including all of those held during the periods presented, arise from our operations and reflect a strategy of largely mitigating these remaining exposures through naturally offsetting positions, regardless of whether hedge accounting is achieved. See below for a discussion of these derivatives.
Borrowings and related collateral derivative positions
Our market risk exposure on derivative crypto asset borrowings and obligations to return crypto asset collateral (when combined with their host contracts, “Gross Financing Derivatives”) is naturally offset, at least in part, by the associated non-derivative crypto assets borrowed, crypto assets held as collateral, and crypto asset loan receivables originated with borrowed assets, all of which are recorded and held at fair value. The following table summarizes our Gross Financing Derivatives and net exposures after considering the naturally offsetting non-derivative positions, related to our crypto asset borrowings and associated collateral (“Net Financing Positions”) (in thousands):
| December 31, | |||||||||||
| 2024 | 2023 | ||||||||||
| Gross Financing Derivatives | $ | 1,067,594 | $ | 416,988 | |||||||
| Net Financing Positions | $ | — | $ | 73 |
The following table presents the impact of changes in fair value of the derivatives noted above when considered gross and net of the naturally offsetting non-derivative positions in our Consolidated Statements of Operations (in thousands):
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||||
| 2024 | 2023 | |||||||||||||
| Losses on Gross Financing Derivatives(1) | $ | (114,521) | $ | (103,338) | ||||||||||
| Losses on Net Financing Positions(2) | $ | — | $ | (5,016) |
(1)Gains and losses on derivatives are recorded in our Consolidated Statements of Operations in the locations shown in Note 11. Derivatives of the Notes to our Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
(2)As of January 1, 2024, the date of our adoption of ASU 2023-08, net gains and losses after considering the associated naturally offsetting non-derivative positions are recorded in Transaction expense in the Consolidated Statements of Operations. Prior to adoption of ASU 2023-08, net gains and losses after considering the naturally offsetting non-derivative positions were recorded in Other operating expense, net in the Consolidated Statements of Operations.
As of December 31, 2024 and 2023, a hypothetical 50% increase or decrease in the fair value of these derivative positions, after considering the associated naturally offsetting positions, would not have a material impact on our Consolidated Financial Statements. This hypothetical 50% is calculated as discussed above under Market Risk of Crypto Assets, as the fair value of these derivatives is also derived primarily from the volatility of Bitcoin and Ethereum over a similar period.
Other derivative positions
Our market risk exposure to derivatives arising from accounts receivable and payable denominated in crypto assets (when combined with their host contracts, “Other Derivatives”) represents unmitigated exposure. However, these assets and liabilities are short-term in nature. The following table summarizes these Other Derivatives exposures, on a gross basis, as the receivables and payables may be unrelated (in thousands):
| December 31, | |||||||||||
| 2024 | 2023 | ||||||||||
| Gross Other Derivatives | $ | 228,712 | $ | 65,082 |
The following table presents the impact of changes in fair value of the derivatives noted above in our Consolidated Statements of Operations (in thousands):
| Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||||
| 2024 | 2023 | |||||||||||||
| Gains on Gross Other Derivatives(1) | $ | 83,269 | $ | 37,031 |
(1)Gains and losses on derivatives are recorded in our Consolidated Statements of Operations in the locations shown in Note 11. Derivatives of the Notes to our Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
As of December 31, 2024 and 2023, a hypothetical 10% increase or decrease in the fair value of these Other Derivatives positions would not have a material impact on our Consolidated Financial Statements.
For more information on our derivatives, see Notes 2. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies*—*Derivative contracts, 4. Collateralized Arrangements and Financing, 6. Accounts Receivable, Net, 11. Derivatives, and 12. Other Consolidated Balance Sheets Details of the Notes to our Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Item 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
To the stockholders and the Board of Directors of Coinbase Global, Inc.
Opinion on the Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Coinbase Global, Inc. (the "Company") as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, the related consolidated statements of Operations, Comprehensive Income (Loss), Changes in Stockholders’ Equity, and Cash Flows, for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2024, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the "financial statements"). In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2024, and 2023, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2024, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
We have also audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2024, based on criteria established in Internal Control — Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission and our report dated February 13, 2025, expressed an unqualified opinion on the Company's internal control over financial reporting.
Basis for Opinion
These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company's financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
Critical Audit Matters
The critical audit matters communicated below are matters arising from the current-period audit of the financial statements that were communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that (1) relate to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matters below, providing separate opinions on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which they relate.
Crypto Assets Held in Cold Storage — including Corporate Crypto Assets Held, USDC and Customer Crypto Assets - Refer to Notes 2, 4, 5, 7, 11 and 21 of the financial statements
Critical Audit Matter Description
Crypto assets are generally accessible only by the possessor of the unique private key relating to the digital wallet in which the crypto assets are held. Accordingly, private keys must be safeguarded and secured in order to prevent an unauthorized party from accessing the crypto assets within a digital wallet. The Company primarily holds crypto assets for its own use, and on behalf of customers, in wallets within its cold storage environment. The loss, theft, or otherwise compromise of access to the private keys required to access the crypto assets in cold storage could adversely affect the Company’s ability to access the crypto assets within its environment. This could result in loss of corporate crypto assets held or loss of crypto assets safeguarded on behalf of customers.
We identified crypto assets in cold storage as a critical audit matter due to the nature and extent of audit effort required to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to address the risks of material misstatement related to the existence and rights & obligations of crypto assets in cold storage. The nature and extent of audit effort required to address the matter includes significant involvement of more experienced engagement team members and discussions and consultations with subject matter experts related to the matter.
How the Critical Audit Matter Was Addressed in the Audit
Our audit procedures related to crypto assets in cold storage included the following, among others:
-
We consulted with subject matter experts regarding our planned audit response to address certain risks of material misstatement of crypto assets in cold storage.
-
We tested the effectiveness of controls within the Company’s private key management process including controls related to physical access, key generation, and segregation of duties across the processes.
-
We tested the effectiveness of management’s reconciliation control of internal books and records to external blockchains.
-
We tested the effectiveness of management’s control to segregate corporate crypto asset balances from customer crypto asset balances.
-
We tested the effectiveness of controls within the processes of customer crypto asset deposits and customer crypto asset withdrawals.
-
We obtained evidence to evaluate crypto asset balances for appropriate segregation between corporate crypto assets and customer crypto assets.
-
We utilized our proprietary audit tool to independently obtain evidence from public blockchains to test the existence of crypto asset balances.
-
We obtained evidence that management has control of the private keys required to access crypto assets in cold storage through a combination of decoding cryptographic messages signed using selected private keys or through observing the movement of selected crypto assets.
-
We evaluated the reliability of audit evidence obtained from public blockchains.
**Commitments and Contingencies - SEC complaint and legal actions by U.S. state securities regulators — Refer to Note
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Item 9. CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS ON ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE.
None
Item 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
Our disclosure controls and procedures are designed to ensure that information we are required to disclose in reports that we file or submit under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in SEC rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure.
Our management, with the participation and supervision of our Chief Executive Officer (our principal executive officer) and our Chief Financial Officer (our principal financial officer), has evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act) as of December 31, 2024. Based on such evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer have concluded that as of December 31, 2024, our disclosure controls and procedures were, in design and operation, effective at a reasonable assurance level.
Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15(d)-15(f) under the Exchange Act) to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Our management, under the supervision of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting based on the criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission. Based on this evaluation, our management has concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2024. The effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2024 has been audited by Deloitte & Touche LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, as stated in their report, which is included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Changes in Internal Controls Over Financial Reporting
There were no changes to our internal control over financial reporting (as such term is defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act) that occurred during the most recently completed fiscal quarter that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
Inherent Limitations on the Effectiveness of Controls
The effectiveness of any system of internal control over financial reporting, including ours, is subject to inherent limitations, including the exercise of judgment in designing, implementing, operating, and evaluating the controls and procedures, and the inability to eliminate misconduct completely. Accordingly, in designing and evaluating the disclosure controls and procedures, management recognizes that any system of internal control over financial reporting, including ours, no matter how well designed and operated, can only provide reasonable, not absolute assurance of achieving the desired control objectives. In addition, the design of disclosure controls and procedures must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints and that management is required to apply its judgment in evaluating the benefits of possible controls and procedures relative to their costs. Moreover, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate. We intend to continue to monitor and upgrade our internal controls as necessary or appropriate for our business but cannot assure you that such improvements will be sufficient to provide us with effective internal control over financial reporting.
Item 9B. OTHER INFORMATION
Rule 10b5-1 Trading Plans
The Company’s directors and officers (as defined in Rule 16a-1(f) under the Exchange Act) are only permitted to trade in the Company’s securities pursuant to a prearranged trading plan intended to satisfy the affirmative defense of Rule 10b5-1(c) under the Exchange Act (a “Rule 10b5-1 Plan”). During the three months ended December 31, 2024, three of the Company’s officers adopted a Rule 10b5-1 Plan. The applicable Rule 10b5-1 Plans were entered into during an open trading window in accordance with the Company’s Insider Trading Policy and Trading Plan Policy.
On December 2, 2024, Emilie Choi, the Company’s President and Chief Operating Officer, entered into a Rule 10b5-1 Plan (the “Choi Plan”). On December 17, 2024, Ms. Choi terminated the Choi Plan for estate planning purposes. As of the date of termination of the Choi Plan, Ms. Choi had not sold any shares of Class A common stock thereunder. The Choi Plan provided for the potential sale of up to 733,235 shares of Class A common stock owned by Ms. Choi, including upon the vesting and settlement of restricted stock units (“RSUs”) and performance RSUs for shares of Class A common stock and the exercise of vested stock options for shares of Class A common stock, so long as the market price of the Class A common stock was higher than certain minimum threshold prices specified in the Choi Plan, between an estimated start date of March 3, 2025 and December 31, 2025. The Choi Plan provided for the sale of shares of Class A common stock to be received upon the future vesting and settlement of certain outstanding RSUs and performance RSUs, net of any shares withheld or mandatorily sold by the Company to satisfy applicable tax obligations. The number of shares to be withheld or mandatorily sold by the Company, and therefore the exact number of shares to be sold pursuant to the Choi Plan, could only be determined upon the occurrence of the future vesting events. For purposes of this disclosure, we have included the maximum aggregate number of shares to be sold without subtracting any shares to be withheld or mandatorily sold by the Company upon future vesting events.
On December 3, 2024, Jennifer Jones, the Company’s Chief Accounting Officer, entered into a Rule 10b5-1 Plan (the “Jones Plan”) providing for the potential sale of up to 23,625 shares of Class A common stock owned by Ms. Jones, plus an additional undetermined number of shares of Class A common stock to be received by Ms. Jones upon the future grant, vesting, and settlement of RSUs for shares of Class A common stock, including upon the vesting and settlement of RSUs for shares of Class A common stock and the exercise of vested stock options for shares of Class A common stock, so long as the market price of the Class A common stock is higher than certain minimum threshold prices specified in the Jones Plan or, in certain circumstances, at the market price, between an estimated start date of March 4, 2025 and February 27, 2026. The Jones Plan provides for the sale of shares of Class A common stock to be received by Ms. Jones upon the future grant, vesting, and settlement of RSUs for shares of Class A common stock. The Jones Plan also provides for the sale of shares of Class A common stock to be received upon the future vesting and settlement of certain outstanding RSUs, net of any shares withheld or mandatorily sold by the Company to satisfy applicable tax obligations and shares sold pursuant to Ms. Jones’ prior Rule 10b5-1 Plan dated February 29, 2024 (the “Prior Jones Plan”). The numbers of shares (i) to be received by Ms. Jones upon the future grant, vesting, and settlement of RSUs for shares of Class A common stock and (ii) to be withheld or mandatorily sold by the Company or sold pursuant to the Prior Jones Plan, and therefore the exact number of shares to be sold pursuant to the Jones Plan, can only be determined upon the occurrence of future events. For purposes of this disclosure, we have included the maximum aggregate number of shares to be sold without (i) including any shares to be sold upon the future vesting and settlement of any RSUs that have not yet been granted and (ii) subtracting any shares to be withheld or mandatorily sold by the Company upon future vesting events or to be sold pursuant to the Prior Jones Plan.
On December 2, 2024, Lawrence Brock, the Company’s Chief People Officer, entered into a Rule 10b5-1 Plan (the “Brock Plan”) providing for the potential sale of up to 72,436 shares of Class A common stock owned by Mr. Brock, plus an additional undetermined number of shares of Class A common stock to
be received by Mr. Brock upon the future grant, vesting, and settlement of RSUs for shares of Class A common stock, including upon the vesting and settlement of RSUs for shares of Class A common stock and the exercise of vested stock options for shares of Class A common stock, so long as the market price of the Class A common stock is higher than certain minimum threshold prices specified in the Brock Plan or, in certain circumstances, at the market price, between an estimated start date of March 3, 2025 and February 27, 2026. The Brock Plan provides for the sale of shares of Class A common stock to be received by Mr. Brock upon the future grant, vesting, and settlement of RSUs for shares of Class A common stock. The Brock Plan also provides for the sale of shares of Class A common stock to be received upon the future vesting and settlement of certain outstanding RSUs, net of any shares withheld or mandatorily sold by the Company to satisfy applicable tax obligations. The numbers of shares (i) to be received by Mr. Brock upon the future grant, vesting, and settlement of RSUs for shares of Class A common stock and (ii) to be withheld or mandatorily sold by the Company, and therefore the exact number of shares to be sold pursuant to the Brock Plan, can only be determined upon the occurrence of the future vesting events. For purposes of this disclosure, we have included the maximum aggregate number of shares to be sold without (i) including any shares to be sold upon the future vesting and settlement of any RSUs that have not yet been granted and (ii) subtracting any shares to be withheld or mandatorily sold by the Company upon future vesting events.
Item 9C. DISCLOSURE REGARDING FOREIGN JURISDICTIONS THAT PREVENT INSPECTIONS
Not applicable
PART III I
Item 10. DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
The information required by this item is incorporated by reference to the definitive Proxy Statement for our 2025 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which will be filed with the SEC no later than 120 days after December 31, 2024.
Insider Trading Policies and Procedures
The Company has insider trading policies and procedures that govern the purchase, sale, and other dispositions of its securities by directors, officers, employees, contractors, advisors, and consultants, and the Company itself, that the Company believes are reasonably designed to promote compliance with insider trading laws, rules and regulations and the listing standards of Nasdaq. A copy of the Company’s Insider Trading Policy is filed with this Annual Report on Form 10-K as Exhibit 19.1.
Item 11. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
The information required by this item is incorporated by reference to the definitive Proxy Statement for our 2025 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which will be filed with the SEC no later than 120 days after December 31, 2024.
Item 12. SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT AND RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS
The information required by this item is incorporated by reference to the definitive Proxy Statement for our 2025 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which will be filed with the SEC no later than 120 days after December 31, 2024.
Item 13. CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS, AND DIRECTOR INDEPENDENCE
The information required by this item is incorporated by reference to the definitive Proxy Statement for our 2025 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which will be filed with the SEC no later than 120 days after December 31, 2024.
Item 14. PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTANT FEES AND SERVICES
The information required by this item is incorporated by reference to the definitive Proxy Statement for our 2025 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, which will be filed with the SEC no later than 120 days after December 31, 2024.
PART IV
Item 15. EXHIBITS AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES
**1.**Financial Statements
The following financial statements are included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K:
Reports of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
Consolidated Balance Sheets
Consolidated Statements of Operations
Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income (Loss)
Consolidated Statements of Changes in Stockholders’ Equity
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows
Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements
**2.**Financial Statement Schedules
All schedules have been omitted because the required information is included in the Consolidated Financial Statements or the notes thereto, or because it is not required.
**3.**Exhibits
The exhibits listed below are filed as part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K or are incorporated herein by reference, in each case as indicated below.
† Indicates a management or compensatory plan or arrangement in which directors or executive officers are eligible to participate.
- The Registrant has omitted portions of the exhibit (indicated by “[*]”) as permitted under Item 601(b)(10)(iv) of Regulation S-K, which portions will be furnished to the SEC upon request.
^ The Registrant has omitted schedules and exhibits pursuant to Item 601(a)(5) of Regulation S-K. The Registrant agrees to furnish supplementally a copy of the omitted schedules and exhibits to the SEC upon request.
The certifications furnished in Exhibits 32.1 and 32.2 hereto are deemed to accompany this Annual Report on Form 10-K and are not deemed “filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the Exchange Act, or otherwise subject to the liability of that section, nor shall they be deemed incorporated by reference into any filing under the Securities Act of the Exchange Act.
Item 16. FORM 10-K SUMMARY
None
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, the registrant has duly caused this Annual Report on Form 10-K to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
| Date: February 13, 2025 | COINBASE GLOBAL, INC. | |||||||
| By: | /s/ Brian Armstrong | |||||||
| Brian Armstrong | ||||||||
| Chief Executive Officer |
POWER OF ATTORNEY
KNOW ALL PERSONS BY THESE PRESENTS, that each person whose signature appears below hereby constitutes and appoints Brian Armstrong and Alesia J. Haas, and each of them, as his or her true and lawful attorneys-in-fact, proxies, and agents, each with full power of substitution, for him or her in any and all capacities, to sign any and all amendments to this Annual Report on Form 10-K, and to file the same, with all exhibits thereto and other documents in connection therewith, with the Securities and Exchange Commission, granting unto said attorneys-in-fact, proxies, and agents full power and authority to do and perform each and every act and thing requisite and necessary to be done in connection therewith, as fully for all intents and purposes as he might or could do in person, hereby ratifying and confirming all that said attorneys-in-fact, proxies, and agents, or their or his or her substitute or substitutes, may lawfully do or cause to be done by virtue hereof.
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, this Annual Report on Form 10-K has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated.
| Name | Title | Date | ||||||||||||
| /s/ Brian Armstrong | Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board | February 13, 2025 | ||||||||||||
| Brian Armstrong | (Principal Executive Officer) | |||||||||||||
| /s/ Alesia J. Haas | Chief Financial Officer | February 13, 2025 | ||||||||||||
| Alesia J. Haas | (Principal Financial Officer) | |||||||||||||
| /s/ Jennifer N. Jones | Chief Accounting Officer | February 13, 2025 | ||||||||||||
| Jennifer N. Jones | (Principal Accounting Officer) | |||||||||||||
| /s/ Marc L. Andreessen | Director | February 13, 2025 | ||||||||||||
| Marc L. Andreessen | ||||||||||||||
| /s/ Paul Clement | Director | February 13, 2025 | ||||||||||||
| Paul Clement | ||||||||||||||
| /s/ Christa Davies | Director | February 13, 2025 | ||||||||||||
| Christa Davies | ||||||||||||||
| /s/ Frederick Ernest Ehrsam III | Director | February 13, 2025 | ||||||||||||
| Frederick Ernest Ehrsam III | ||||||||||||||
| /s/ Kelly Kramer | Director | February 13, 2025 | ||||||||||||
| Kelly Kramer | ||||||||||||||
| /s/ Chris Lehane | Director | February 13, 2025 | ||||||||||||
| Chris Lehane | ||||||||||||||
| /s/ Tobias Lütke | Director | February 13, 2025 | ||||||||||||
| Tobias Lütke | ||||||||||||||
| /s/ Gokul Rajaram | Director | February 13, 2025 | ||||||||||||
| Gokul Rajaram | ||||||||||||||
| /s/ Fred Wilson | Director | February 13, 2025 | ||||||||||||
| Fred Wilson |