Coinbase’s second quarter revenues exceeded expectations; CashApp’s BTC sales increase in the second quarter; Curve, Metronome and Alchemix offer rewards to recover funds
The revenues of Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US, managed to exceed expectations.
Coinbase’s net loss was 1.1 billion dollars last year. Since last year, this loss has decreased to 97 million dollars. This indicates a loss of 42 cents per share.
Analysts estimated Coinbase revenues to be $631.2 million, but the exchange announced revenues of $707.9 million, exceeding expectations.
The exchange managed to boost its revenues in the first half of the year as the price of cryptocurrencies soared. However, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong continues to fight US regulators with all his might. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit in June alleging that the exchange was operating as an illegal broker.
Even though the company posted its sixth consecutive loss, the company’s shares managed to double over the year.
Interest income, one of Coinbase’s key revenue streams, declined compared to the previous quarter after USDC’s circulation fell.
Coinbase’s shares rose sharply after the report, but later returned to the $90 level.
The company said its customers’ fiat money balances fell to $3.8 billion, compared to $5.4 billion in the first quarter. It cited the banking crisis in the first quarter as the main reason for this.
Bitcoin accounted for 40% of Coinbase’s transaction volume in the second quarter. Last quarter, the figure was 31%.
CashApp’s BTC sales increase in the second quarter
Bitcoin sales on Block’s payment app CashApp reached $2.4 billion in the second quarter, up 34% year-on-year.
Gross profit from BTC sales reached $44 million, up 7% year-on-year, The Block reported. The company said that customers are buying more cryptocurrencies despite falling prices.
The report included the following statements:
“The year-over-year increase in Bitcoin revenue and gross profit was driven by an increase in the amount of Bitcoin sold to customers, partially offset by Bitcoin’s price decline in the market compared to last year.”
The company’s investments in Bitcoin
Block attracted attention by buying $50 million in Bitcoin in the fourth quarter of 2020 and $170 million in the first quarter of 2021.
Regarding his BTC investments, Block said:
“As of June 30, 2023, the fair value of our Bitcoin investment based on the observable market price is $245 million.”
The company’s revenue for the quarter rose to $5.53 billion from $4.40 billion in the same quarter last year. Gross profit for the period rose to $1.87 million from $1.47 million.
Curve, Metronome and Alchemix offer rewards to recover funds
DeFi platforms Curve, Metronome and Alchemix have partnered to recover funds stolen from Curve’s pools.
According to on-chain data, the protocols offer a reward of 10% of the stolen funds, while calling on those responsible for the exploit to step back and return the remaining 90% of assets. In the attack, $70 million in funds were stolen, suggesting that the reward would be in the range of $7 million.
The offer includes a guarantee that no further legal action will be taken and that law enforcement will not intervene. “We want to resolve this in a civilized manner,” the statement said.
The protocols, in a joint statement, are due by August 6.
If you voluntarily choose not to return the assets and do not communicate by August 6, we will extend the reward to the public and offer 10% to the person who can identify you. This will lead to your conviction in the courts. We will pursue you in every way with the full force of the law.
The three protocols called for immediate contact from those responsible, offering an e-mail account.
The attack was caused by a critical vulnerability in versions of the Vyper programming language. Several pools using Vyper 0.2.15, 0.2.16 and 0.3.0 were affected by an attack that affected four liquidity pools on Curve Finance.
The security problems have caused new uncertainty in the crypto community. This has raised concerns about a potential domino effect on the DeFi ecosystem.
