New Delhi: Coinbase, the San Francisco-based crypto exchange, has become the first cryptocurrency company to break into the Fortune 500. Currently ranked at 437, Coinbase has a market value of $41,670 million and over 3,700 employees, as per Fortune. Coinbase recently faced some trouble in India, as it had to quit operations in the country due to “informal pressure” from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), as per CEO Brian Armstrong. In April, Coinbase halted payments via UPI mode on its app in the Indian market.
Founded in 2012, Coinbase truly came into prominence when it went public through a direct listing on Nasdaq. While analysts predicted a $100-billion valuation, Coinbase wrapped up day-one trading with a valuation of $61 billion, marking the seventh-highest market cap among US companies following the first day of trading.
As per Fortune, Coinbase saw a revenue of $7.8 billion in 2021, barely making it past Fortune 500’s minimum listing requirement of $6.4 billion. In 2022, considering the abysmal performance of major cryptocurrencies so far, including the likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum, it remains to be seen how Coinbase performs in terms of revenue before the year is out.
During the company’s earnings call earlier this month, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said that it disabled UPI payments “because of some informal pressure” from the RBI.
"There are elements in the government there, including at the Reserve Bank of India, who don't seem to be as positive on it. Basically, they're applying soft pressure behind the scenes to try to disable some of these payments, which might be going through UPI," Armstrong told analysts.
Coinbase reported a net loss of $430 million in the first quarter this year — the company’s first since going public.
Separately, earlier this month, Coinbase warned that its users could lose their crypto holdings if the company ever went bankrupt. The crypto exchange included the disclosure as part of its Q1 earnings report. This was the first time that the risk factor was mentioned to users. Armstrong, however, tried to quell the panic by tweeting, “We have no risk of bankruptcy.”